
f^e ONLY RAILWAY 



TRAVERSING THE GREAT SOUTHWESTERN 





IS IT 



Rice OR Oil? 



You can find both 
on the line of the 

Southern Pacific 

SUNSET ROUTE. 

In Louisiana and Texas. 

The only line traversing 
the Rice and Oil Belt 
from end to end ^ ^m ^h 



Writ© for Information to 

S. R B. MORSE, U J. PARKS, 

Assistant Pass'r Traffic Mgr. Gen'l Pass'r and Ticket A} 

HOUSTON, TEXAS. 



I/NTKODUeTO-Rg. 



/ j VERY important question for eacii of us to answer, is, vvliere 
f«vi. ^h'^" ^ locate my liome ? A good location means prosperity. 
A bad location means adversity. Please read carefully the 
very full description of Southwest Louisiana along the line of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad, before deciding this great question. Is it 
accessible .-' is it healthy ? Can 1 live easily ? Can I find good 
society, schools, churches ? Are there more or less advantages and 
disadvantages than elsewhere .-' The Southern Pacific Railroad fur- 
nishes good and fast transportation through this immense prairie 
and timber country. More than 20,000 Northern people have located 
homes here, and take this means of reaching you with an invitation 
to come and help them develop the best partly improved field in 
America, We will give you in detail the experiences of our best fruit 
experts, the best breeders and stock farmers, the best rice and sugar 
cane growers, and the best general farmers. A careful reading of 
this book will give you the best opinion of the best men in the country, 
located on the line of the Southern Pacific in Louisiana; men of ex- 
perience North and South, and experts in the business which they 
describe, much better qualified to judge of comparative values than 
men who have never lived North and South. You must summer and 
winter in a country to know it. The value of the country is no ex- 
periment, its possibilities, also, are great. Only look at what has 
been done here in ten years, in one industry, rice, by the Iowa colony 
who introduced the twine-binding harvester only sixteen years ago. 
Now four thousand are in use, doing the work in harvest time 
(three months) of 100,000 men. The shipments over our Southern 
Pacific Railroad then two million pounds, 1886 and 1887 ; three hun- 
dred millions, 1892 and 1893; with an increase of thirty-nine million 
pounds in December, 1892, over December, 1891 ; since that time 
the crop has approximated 250,000,000 pounds yearly, ' Every 
branch of agricultural industry has largely increased. Vast numbers 
of fruit trees have been planted. Stock has been improved. Large 
quantities of hay have been cured and sent to market, and now at- 
tention has been turned to the sugar industry, with every prospect of 
success. This book is made and distributed at great expense by the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company, that its patrons may be thor- 
oughly posted about the country along its line, to which they invite 
immigration, and where there are at least twenty thousand Northern 
settlers who have been brought there by our agents, and whose 
history is a marvel of success. Read it carefully and you will act 
understandingly. 



O^INCEthe publication of this book, eight years ago, a volu- 
/^ tioii has occurred in Immigration. The westward trend has 
been stopped, and now the South, for the first time, is getting 
the bulk of the business. This Immigration is not only large, but is 
of the very best classes from the North and West, American born, 
who understand and love our laws and institutions ; mostly farmers, 
who are familiar with improved farming methods and machinery. 

Southwest Louisiana, "The Prairie Region," has been trans- 
formed from grass-covered plains, separated by rivers, skirted with 
valuable timber, to improved farms, enclosed with wire, with good 
buildings, gardens, orchards and ornamental trees. Rice, so far, is 
the leading industry, and is steadily gaining in volume and favor as 
the most profitable cereal grown, relished by man and beast. We 
can grow more bushels and more dollars per acre than can be 
done with any other cereal. North or South. Rice=growing leaves no 
waste land and has fully demonstrated the entire healthfulness of 
the business. 

Small farmers can grow cane in the "Prairie Region." where 
the soil is easily cultivated and the sugar content fifty per cent, 
greater than elsewhere, at a fair profit at present prices. Corn 
growing has increased nearly lOO per cent, in this part of the State. 
Diversity of crops crowds the farmer from the rut. Nowhere in the 
North can such a diversity be grown. The best products of two zones 
push the farmer to the front. The successful feeding of rice has 
pushed stock-growing into greater favor. Creole ponies and cows 
are fast going and the better breeds fill their places. Larger horses 
of good breeds are in good favor. The mule is largely and profitably 
used. Galloway, Jersey, Hereford, Holstein and Shorthorn cattle, 
Poland China, Berkshire and Jersey hogs all do well and fatten very 
cheaply on rice and sweet potatoes ; but not at one cent a pound, 
hardly, but at a cost far below what can be done in any cold climate, 
and right at the best market in the United States. Via New Orleans 
is as good a market for our farmers as New York City; each a sea- 
board market with practically the same expense to European markets; 
below the storm belt; abundant rainfall; valuable crops; certainty 
of product ; length of growing season ; prairie and timber lands ; short 
winters ; excellent fruit country ; cheap lands ; good titles ; healthful- 
ness ; law-abidihg, church-going, educated, enterprising people ; 
located on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, whose facilities 
for distribution and transportation are not excelled, who have com- 
menced laying a double track from New Orleans through this, the 
most valuable, partly developed country in the United States. 



^ouihwest J^oulsiana 



►►► 



UP TO DATE. -« 

(Omaha Edition, 1901.) 




Important Information 
for People 
Desiring 
to Find 
a Better 
Country. 




Rice. 



Sugar Cane. 



BY ONE WHO HAS SUfiriERED AND WINTERED EIGHTEEN YEARS IN THE 

PRAIRIE REGION OF SOUTHWEST LOUISANA. 

Great progress has been made in rice-growing in Southwest Louisiana the past 
year. More rice has been grown under pump than ever, and this rice has yielded 
"from 8 to lo barrels per acre of rough rice, selling at an average of three dollars 
for 162 pounds. Then rice grown along canals, given water too late in the season, 
yielded 3 to 7 barrels, and poverty or providence rice, depending upon rainfall 
^ione yielding 2 to 4 barrels, and a large percentage of the providence rice not 
worth harvesting. The average cost of growing rice per acre is ten dollars. 

An average crop of ten sacks generally pays cost of growing the crop and 
the cost of the farm. 

A WORD AS TO CANALS. 

The extremely rapid increase in the number of irrigation arfd canal companies, 
and the magnitude of the recent investments in the directions of canals, makes it 
impossible to give a detailed history of the many enterprises. A glance at the 
list of canals and irrigating plants elsewhere in this book will give the reader an 
opportunity of estimating to his own satisfaction the advances which have been 
made. The modest investment of a few thousand dollars in a pumping plant of 
three years since, has given place to companies with a capital stock of $250,000, 
like that of the Abbott-Duson concern, or with plants like that of the McFarland 
Co., at Jennings with a battery of magnificent pumps or of the Vermillion Im- 
provement Co. at Greydan, with a flow of 250,000,000 gallons every 24 hours. 
Daily the extension of tlie system is making the rice crop a "sure thing" and 
Southwest Louisiana will be marked with artificial waterways its length and 
breadth. 

The new deep well system will render rains unnecessary and the rice farmer 
will have nothing left to do but cultivate his crop and then harvest them. 

RICE MILLS. 

As might have been expected, the rapid development of the rice industry has 
given a stimulus to rice factories. In the past five years nearly fifteen rice clean- 
ing mills have been erected throughout the rice country in Southwest Louisiana, 
and more are being erected. At present more than half the crop is being milled 
where it is grown, the remainder being shipped out in the rough. 

_ in a few more years sufficient factories will have been equipped to clean the 
entire output even taking into consideration the probable large increase in the 
yield. 



DIAGRAn SHOWING THE ASSESSMENTS OF CALCASIEU 
PARISH FROn 1882 TO 1900. 



1882. 
$1,991,085 



1883. 
$2,333,065 



1885. 
$3 018,570 



1886. 
$3,191,125 



1887. 
$3,479,130 



1888. 
$4,060,475 



1889. 
$4,300,330 



1890. 
$5,738,775 



1891. 
$5,864,455 



1892. 
$6,457,430 



1893. 
$7,090,170 



1894. 
$7,625,000 



1897. 
$7,830,020 



1898. 
$8,555,520 



]899. 
$9,650,340 



1900. 
$10,567,433 



Products are in greater variety, surer, and of more value than 
north. Three things are essential to successful agriculture — soil, 
moisture and heat, and the greatest of these is moisture. Sixty 
inches of rain supplemented by our system of canals and wells give 
Southwest Louisiana the safest and most profitable farming in the 
States. Sugar and rice are a success, and we have a home market 
which takes one hundred and fifty millions "of dollars to fill. 



Don't Invest Until You See The Prairie Region In Southwest Louisiana. 



20 NOV 1905 

D.ofO< 



ASSESSHENTS OF ACADIA PARISH, 



1SS8. 
$1,192,001 



1889. 
$1,344,541 



1890. 
$1,339,545 



1891. 
.$1,526,420 



1892. 
$2,008,425 



1893. 
$2,267,880 



1896. 
$2,624,110 



1897. 

$2,584,015 



1898. 
$2,933,750 



1899. 
$3,368,110 



1900. 
$3,685,799 



We have no doubt that with the improvements now in sight, planters will 
liave one hundred per cent, profit in present prices of rice in five years, and you 
can judge what the effect will be upon the price of real estate. The time is at 
hand when we can speak as confidently of a crop of rice as we do now of a 
crop of figs. With water at command the gambling element in farming is gone. 
Seventy-five canals and many more pumping plants have laid a sure foundation 
for the agriculture and general prosperity of a region that has no equal in its 
general advantages. 

"TOO HIGH TO OVERFLOW AND TOO FLAT TO WASH." 

GOOD UNinPROVED PRAIRIE LAND SELLS ON TIME AT FIVE 
TO TEN DOLLARS PER ACRE. 

GOOD TIMBER AT SEVENTY=FIVE CENTS TO FIVE DOLLARS 
PER ACRE. 

SEB BOOK DESCRIBING THIS COUNTRY. 



For further information, books, maps, circulars and. rates, apply to 



v. C. CARY. N "W. P. & I. A., 

Kansas City, Mo. 
S. L. GARY, N. I. Ag-ent, 

Jenningrs. La., or Manchester, la. 
OEO. "W. ELY, Trav. Pass. A^ent. 

Montgomery, Ala. 
K. O. BEAN, Trav. Pass. Agent. 

4 Noel Block, NashTrille, Tenn. 
W. R. FAGAN, Trav, Pass. Agent, 

Atlanta, Qa. 
C. W. MXJRPHEY, Trav. Pass. Agent, 

18 E. Bryan Et., SavajanaYi, Oa. 



S. E. CURRIER, New England Agent, 

9 State Street, Boston, Mass. 
R. J. SMITH, Agent, 

109 South Third St , Philadelphia, Pa. 
B. E. BARBER. Agent, 

209 E. German St., Baltimore, Md. 
W. H. CONNER, Commercial Agent, 

Chamber of Commerce, Cincinnati, O. 
L. E. TO^WTNSLEY, 

421 Olive St., St. Louis, Mo. 
GEO. E. BCERKING, Agent. 

201 Telephone Bldg., Pittsburgh, P». 



W. G. NIEMYER, C. W. BEIN, 

Gen'l 'Western Freight & Pass. Agt., Traffic Mgr., 

238 Clark St., Chicago, 111. 



S. F. B. MORSE, 

Gen'l Pass. Agt. & Ticket Agt. 
New Orleans, La. 



E. HAWLEY, 

Assistant Gen'l Traffic Mgr. 
349 Broadway, N. Y. 




*— *war 



Xii 




Southwestern Louisiana. 



Wonderful Developments in Recent Years. 



Big Returns Have Invariably Followed Intelligent Effort and 

Industry. 



From tlie New Orleans Times-Democrat. May 21, 1899. 

"Very few people have a thorouglily comprehensive idea 
of the wonderful development of Southwest Louisiana," said 
General Passenger Agent S. F. B. Morse of the Southern 
Pacific Company to a Times-Democrat reporter yesterday, 
" but it only requires the most cursory investigation to 
determine the fact that this development has been uuequaled 
in agricultural circles in any portion of the United States. 

" To begin with, it must be understood that it has only 
been in the last ten or twelve years that Southwest Louisiana 
from an agricultural standpoint has made any particular 
claims upon the attention of the people generally, and it is 
not a very pleasant commentary upon our own people to note 
that this development has been the result of immigration 
from several of the States of the Middle West. , These 
people, thrifty and filled with an energy the result of long 
acquaintance with the winters of the West, came into this 
country, and quickly realizing the advantages offered by soil 
and climate, set up their roof trees in the verdant savannas 
of this Southwest Louisiana, and have made the prairie lauds 
blossom in all the glory of ripening grain and the fruits of 
both tree and vine. 

" Fifteen years ago, S. L. Gary, at present immigration 
agent of the Southern Pacific Company, entered the prairie 
section of Southwest Louisiana, coming from Iowa, and dis- 
embarked from the train at what is now the prosperous and 
progressive village of Jennings in Calcasieu parish, on the 
line of the road. He found land so cheap that one of the 



r 




ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 9 

large land owners was giving away hundreds of his acres in 
order to save the expense of a possibly increased taxation. 
For $30 Mr. Gary purchased 300 acres of land. Fifteen 
years of progress and development throughout the entire sec- 
tion in which these acres rested, has witnessed a gradual in- 
crease in the price of the lands, and it will be a startlin|^ 
•evidence of what this progress has been, when I tell you 
that these 300 acres can only be bought for $30,000, and 
this is one of the results of an intelligent and comprehensive 
cultivation of rice. 

''This is not an unusual case. Throughout the rice belt 
lying along the rails of the Southern Pacific, there have been 
hundreds of instances which equal this remarkable increase 
in values. This fact that the farmers of Iowa, tired of 
placing their fortunes upon the turn of the wheat crop, and 
lealizing that the cultivation of this cereal had worn out 
the soil of their home State, had brought into Louisiana 
improved methods of cultivation and farming, has been in a 
large manner responsible for the success which has attended 
the cultivation of rice in Calcasieu and Acadia parishes. 
These farmers were quick to grasp a possibility. They 
found the soil contained a subsoil, which was practically 
impervious to water; that water placed upon the prairie 
lands was held in abeyance as if this subsoil were cement ; 
that when the water was turned off the fields became stiff 
enough in a short while to permit the use of horses and har- 
vesting machines, and this to them solved the entire problem; 
for they had already demonstrated beyond the shadow of a 
doubt that rice grew nowhere as well as it did upon the 
^worthless' prairie lands of this fertile State, and to cultivate 
rice as they did wheat, filled their hearts with joy. 

" It was hardly necessary to do much proselyting. The 
news of the wonderful success which followed the efforts 
of the early contingent, was soon scattered throughout the 
circles they had once frequented. Delegations were sent 
into the new area, and conditions were investigated. It was 
found that climatic influences were benign; that timber was 
in abundance ; that fruit grew well; that diversified crops 
were delightful possibilities, aad that the skies of Louisiana 
were as balmy as ever were those of the famed ' Islands of 
the Blest.' 

"And then lands began to augmen; in value. From fifty 



10. SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

cents, which sum represented its maximum value in those 
days when the long-horn cattle ranged at their own sweet 
will, throughout that section, prices gradually advanced in 
corresponding ratio to the demand, and the jumps became 
early and often. From fifty cents it became a dollar; and 
from $1, $2 and so on up the gamut during the years, until 
to-day lands adapted to the culivation of rice demand any- 
where from $10 to $35 an acre; and values are still pro- 
gressing. Towns have been created, communities have 
become wealthy, branch lines have been extended and manu- 
facturing enterprises have been located. Thousands of enter- 
prising and progressive farmers have entered the territory 
and the past ten years have witnessed an upbuilding along 
the line of our road between Lafayette and Lake Charles tha^t 
has been almost phenomenal. 

"In 1886 the Southern Pacific Railroad handled out of 
Southwestern Louisiana some 2,000,000 pounds of rice ; in 
1887 this had doubled; the following year witnessed a pro- 
duction of 8,000,000 pounds. This in 1889 had increased to 
16,000,000 pounds; while in 1892, which year represented 
the largest production, owing to peculiar climatic influences 
over 200,000,000 pounds were produced; or, in other words, 
250 cars carried the crop of 1884 between Lake Charles and 
Lafayette, while it required over 7000 cars to carry the crop 
of 1892. Since that banner year the crop of Southwest 
Louisiana has fallen a trifle behind the figures quoted, and 
this has been due until the past season to a scarcity of rain- 
fall, and a consequence lowering of levels in the streams 
which traverse the rice-growing section. ' Providence ' rice, 
or rice which receive the rains only, has practically ceased to 
be. The establishment of pumping stations and the building 
of irrigation canals has revolutionized the industry. In 
regard to the building of these canals, which are of recent 
institution, let me tell you that at present there exists over 
eighty of these artificial streams, extending throughout the 
prairie, and their establishment has made the rice crop ' a 
dead sure thing.' This is apparent. Picture to yourself 
miles and miles of irrigation canals, fed by pumps which 
elevate the water from the streams, erach canal irrigating 
anywhere from I to 20,000 acres of land. The canals are 
flushed during the growing season and the water is given the 
rice just at the time when it needs it most. So successful 



ON LINE OP THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. II 

has been the irrigation scheme that in considering the 
development of any uncultivated territory the first question 
raised is that which includes the building of a canal. 

"As a natural sequence of the rapid increase in produc- 
tion the establishment of ricemills for the cleaning and 
polishing of the grain became an absolute necessity. To-day 
the finest ricemills in the world are located at the several 
rice centres of Acadia and Calcasieu parishes. Rayne, 
Crowley, Mermeiiteau, Jennings and Lake Charles each pos- 
sess one or more of these mills, and during the past season 
five milling establishments were in operation night and day 
during the rice season in Crowley, while a like condition 
existed in a less degree at each of the other points men- 
tioned. And yet not one-half of the raw crop is milled in 
the territory in which it is produced. It is extremely likely, 
however that this condition of afiairs will not continue. The 
rice growers themselves have gotten a taste of the extremely 
large profits which attend the milling of the product, and it 
is beyond question that they will either utilize their own 
capital or attract other capital to the end that the entire crop 
shall be handled in the sections in which it is grown. 

"And now let me give you an idea as to the wonderful 
profit which has and is attending the cultivation of the crop, 
the canals and the mills, and this a profit which is but com- 
mensurate with the industry, thrift and enterprise of the 
people who are engaged in their several occupations, and 
here I want to qualify my remark in which I mentioned the 
stimulus given Southwest Louisiana by the injection of an 
element from another State, as I would not for the world 
take from the native element that which is their just due,, 
for, while in the main, my remark was correct, yet it has 
been also due to such men as W. W. and C. C. Duson of 
Crowley, both of whom have labored to their own end and 
the country's upbuilding and its wcrtiderful success. And to 
Messrs. Duson I might add a great many others who have 
also contributed to the development of Louisiana's resources. 

" Individual cases, in which farmers have purchased 
farms on absolute credit, and by the cultivation of a single 
season's crop have paid for their farm and put money in 
bank, are extremely common. I personally am cognizant of 
instances where men have made large fortunes in the rice 
belt during the past eight or ten years. I know of two men, 



12 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

brothers, who reached Crowley, eight or ten years ago witb 
$500 between them. To-day they are worth $250,000. 
Another firm, after an agricultural and business existence of 
eight years, can count their total earnings at even a larger 
figure, while there has not been a single instance in which 
success has failed to attend an intelligent effort, and every- 
where the eye falls upon a condition of things and of men^ 
which conduces to the belief that God must have set a seal 
of favor upon the country and its inhabitants. Beautiful 
residences, handsome farm buildings, are the general rule,, 
and their opposite the exception, while progress is rampant 
in every direction. 

"Just look at a few of these figures: A. M. Garrison, 
Crowley, from 220 acres of rice received $8682 ; A. D. 
McFarland, Jennings, 300 acres, $10,500; S. W. Boyd, 
Lake Arthur, 200 acres, f 4200 ; Taylor & Evans, Jennings, 
200 acres, $7100; C. L. Shaw, Jennings, 230 acres, $8200 : 
Green & Shoemaker, Crowley, 1000 acres, $77,000 ; Abbott 
Bros. Crowley, 1000 acres, $77,000. 

" These are but a few of many instances taken from the 
crop of 1897. And in considering these figures, it must b(> 
remembered that the expense as against the gross receipts, 
will average about one-third, or of a given amount received 
for the crop in bulk, two-thirds go to profit. 

" Then the rice mills. Take any of the mills of Crowley 
for instance. I went through one of these rice mills the 
other day while in Crowley with Secretary Wilson, of the 
Agricultural Department, and I ascertained that the capacity 
of this mill was 1200 barrels every twenty-four hours. The 
mills receive on an average for their part of the work (they 
both cleaning, sacking and selling the product) about 50 
cents a sack. This represents a gross earning capacity for 
at least ten months in the year at present of $600 per day- 
Allowing $200, or even $300, as a legitimate expense and in 
parenthesis as it were, I will say that these figures far exceed 
the facts, and you have a net profit of not less than $300 a 
day, a total of $9000 per month, or a total net of $90,000 
per year, and this on an investment of $50,000. Comment 
'is unnecessary, 

"A canal or irrigation company, whose initial expense 
was the raising of levees and the purchase of pumping ma 
chinery, receives one-fifth of the total crop to which it sup 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC ' 13 

plies water. This profit iipou the investment must be at 
least 25 per cent. In support of these figures, let me quote 
a geutleinuii who recently organized a stock company in St. 
Louis for the purchase of land for vice farming in Chambers 
county, Texas. In considering the question with St. Louis 
capitalists he mentioned the proposed profit of 25 per cent 
and he was laughed at. The iigures were too big and yet 
they were true. 

" In connection with this new company let me tell you 
that this contemplates the building of a canal twenty miles 
in length and the cultivation next season of 20,000 acres of 
rice in one body. 

" The rice condition will bo changed materially in the 
course of the next eight or ten years. At present this entire 
country produces about one-half of the rice consumed in the 
United States. The development of the rice sections along 
our line will, in the course of the time mentioned, force a 
production equal if not greater than the consumption, and 
then prices must fall of necessity. It is because of this 
contingency that I am inclined to support the views of Sec- 
retary of Agriculture Wilson, who said at Jennings the other 
night, that farming must not consist of a one-crop idea ; that 
a diversification of crops indicates a lasting prosperity and 
such must inevitably ensue. He said that Louisiana was 
adapted to the growing of all the fine grasses, and conse- 
quently of fine cattle and horses ; that its fertile lands could 
produce every agricultural product needed by its people, and 
that with intelligent cultivation and selection, nothing was 
impossible to a people who had already accomplished 
so much. 

" Southwest Louisiana is a paradise for the farmer, and 
its people are growing wealthy faster than any agricultural 
people in the entire country. As a rice grower of Crowley 
said the other day, when he was told that money could be 
secured in Boston for 3 per cent; *Give us ten years of 
prosperity such as we have enjoyed during the past ten years 
and we will lend Boston money at her own figures.' 

"At any rate Southwest Louisiana is progressing with a 
vengeance and the existing conditions and its past develop- 
ment are without precedent. The soil is productive, the 
people intelligent and enterprising and its climate delightful. 
Nothing is there peculiar to the South that will not grow 



14 , SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

there, and the land is verdant with the promise of a wonder- 
ful and God-given bounty to man and beast." 



THE PRESENT OUTLOOK OF AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHWEST 

LOUISIANA. 

A PAPER ON KICK PRODUCTION BY S. L. CARY, READ AT THE FARMERS IN- 
STITUTE HELD AT JENNINGS, LOUISIANA, MARCH 21ST, 1899, 
SOME PROBLEMS SOLVED. 

It were well before going into the merits of my subject 
to determine what is success in agriculture, what shall be 
the measure of it. As a matter of statistics, in general busi- 
ness 97 per cent, make failures. In the solid city of Boston, 
(the hub of the universe.) Mr. Wise, after 45 years of close 
observation, said that 95 per cent of the business men of 
that city failed during life or died insolvent. 

A prominent banker in the same city selected 1000 of 
his heaviest depositors, and after forty years he reported that 
all but six had failed while living or died in debt. Some one 
has said " a farm that gives me a place to put the labor of 
my family at good wages is a bonanza." The late J. "A. 
Daniels often said that Michigan farmers worked at an aver- 
age wage of seven cents per day. 

My own experience tells me that 75 per cent of north- 
ern farmers make failures during their business life. From 
this standpoint w^e can better measure the success or the fail- 
ure of agriculture in S. W, Louisiana of which rice growing 
is much the largest and best part. 

You may ask, why is this? Answer, it pays best. Not 
that we can grow little else, for we grow nearly everything 
grown north of us and sugar, rice and earlier truck, fruits 
and many other things besides. 

All of us are brought up in fiction, later on we find it 
out and begin the search for truth. The fiction that rice can 
be grown profitably without flooding on upland or on sandy 
soil or without careful study is past, and now we want to 
know, what is truth? Truth lies hidden in the bottom of a 
well, (about 200 feet down,) covered with clay and quick 
sand representing good and evil. The clay is good and the 
quick sand is treacherous as evil. Diogenes with a lamp in 
daylight was hunting a man. ^ 

We are seeking truth. Truth commends itself to all, 
is always eloquent, it needs no embellishing. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 15 

Our investigation will begin and and end -with rice grow- 
ing, and its incidentals, for the very good reason that rice 
raising is the leading crop, and if that is a failure then we 
must begin again in some other line, which we can well do, 
but for which we see no probable necessity. Modern rice 
growing began fifteen years ago with the introduction of the 
twine binding harvester, by Maurice Brien, of Jennings, La. 
It was indeed an infant industry, a few scattered fields in the 
low ground trodden into the earth by the w41d cattle and 
horses, watered by the rains of Heaven harvested with the 
old sickle. The exports were limited to about 100 car loads 
from Welsh, Jennings and Rayne. 

Now we use 4000 improved harvesters; (each doing the 
work of 40 men with sickle,) over seventy canals and pump- 
ing plants aggregating over 400 miles, each mile capable of 
flooding 1000 acres of rice or of irrigating more than 5000 
acres in other crops. Canals are the work of the past seven 
years, the number increasing each season. Over 300 irriga- 
ting wells for flooding rice have been put down, beginning 
about three years ago, increasing in number each season. 
They have an average depth of 200 feet ; a six inch well 
will flood from 55 to 100 acres. Ten to fifteen new canals 
have commenced business this season and about 200 or more 
deep wells, (and more to follow.) Southwest Louisiana 
leads all competitors in the States by growing over one mil- 
lion barrels of rough rice, (or six thousand six hundred and 
sixty car loads at one hundred and fifty barrels per car.) 
But is there any evidence that rice growing pays as well as 
to grow other crops? Let us see. What per cent of our 
rice farmers have made financial failures? If 75 per cent 
fail in 20 years, (the average business life of a farmer,.) 
then in the same ratio 55 per cent of the rice growers would 
fail in 15 years, (or during the time of modern rice growing.) 
Being on the ground the past sixteen years, and my business 
being to investigate for the good of immigration, I will 
make the assertion from the best of my knowledge that less 
than 25 per cent have failed from the effects of rice farming. 
In spite of the fact that it was a new business to them all. 
Besides the iailures have not been as disastrous as they gen- 
erally are in other districts. There has been no occasion for 



l6 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

appeals to the outside world for help. After all, the best test 
of the outlook for agriculture will be the present price of 
real estate as compared with the beginniug 15 years ago. If 
I should say that land sells more readily now at twenty dollars 
per acre in Southwest Louisiana than at one dollar then, I 
am well within the mark, and that means 2000 per cent, 
advance. But some one says: that's so, but how does that 
compare with countries that grow wheat, oats, stock and cot- 
ton ! Let us see. The New England States that grow 
nearly every thing except sugar, rice and cotton, prices for 
lands have gone down. In the Eastern Middle States real 
estate prices are lower. In the Western Middle States 
prices are much lower than 15 years ago. And the same 
may be said of the Pacific and the grsat northwest. Look- 
ing over the whole field, Southwest Louisiana is the brightest 
spot on the horizon. In the good old days when a man was 
a failure the trouble was in his STARS, now we lay it to the 
TRUSTS. 

Ask a man what is a trust and he will answer, its a 
combination to curtail production and thereby raise prices, 
and all agree that it is a very wicked thing except in our own 
line, and in our business its a very commendable thing to do. 
The cotton planters find the cotton trust a remedy for all the 
ills of life. The same parties are death on all other so-called 
trusts but theirs. My own opinion is well expressed by the 
colored preacher: "Keep in the current, brudder." If 
there is any trusti"Dg going on, be sure that you are in the 
swim. Keep your credit good and get TRUSTED whenever 
you see any money in it. Pope said: " It's in the culture, 
not the soil." It's in ourselves, and not the stars. The world 
is on the up-grade, and now is the tide in the affairs of men, 
which, if taken at the ebb, leads on to fortune. What about 
hard times, A PANIC ? Don't talk it or fear it. Our ex- 
ports exceed our imports 600,000,000 of dollars, and bid 
fair to soon reach one billion of dollars. Our debt to Europe 
is nearly paid, and then this balance must be paid in cash. 
Ten years of such trade would exhaust the metallic money 
of the world. We have the raw material to manufacture, 
and we are the people to do it, and, unless the great wheels 
of trade stop, there will be no scarcity of money or material 
in this, the youngest, most powerful and richest nation on 
earth. Eight billions of gold and silver, all the world's stock 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. . 17 

of metallic mouey, and our mortgage upon it ia our bread- 
stuffs, our cotton, our coal, iron, copper, gold and silver. Our 
a-esources are unlimited and scarcely touched, and our labor 
■more efficient than any other. Assisted by the best inventive 
genius our manufactures have captured all markets. Ameri- 
can engines are hauling trains over American iron in China 
and the Orient. We go wherever men go and trade follows 
our flag. The Star Spangled Banner is hailed with delight 
by all people, including our late enemies, the Spaniards. We 
are the largest exporting country, having passed Great Britain 
the past year. 

Southwest Louisiana is settled by a thinking people, and 
"what are we here for? Answer.* To make money, and that 
comes from higher prices for what we own and produce ; to 
make homes, and they come of prosperity; and, above all, to 
make character, and that comes from obstacles overcome, aiid 
the good Lord knows we have had our full sliare. I have said 
that we have been systematically robbed. First and most by 
our ignorance of the rice business. We tried Providence 
and challenged Nature to a combat in which we came out 
second best; then tried the New Orleans millers and came 
out busted;, then we tried the rice buyers and speculators 
and came out worsted ; and last we challenged the heavens 
and declared our independence of the clouds, and the angel 
of the harvest invoked the aid of Neptune, and he opened 
the flood-gates of heaven upon us and never let up for our 
■crying until there was nothing to show for the largest and 
"best crop of rice ever grown in Southwest Louisiana but a sea 
of mud. And now in TRUTH, tell us what is the present 
outlook for the rice industry. Has it overcome these ob- 
stacles and made them stepping-stones to success? If so, 
then its character must be -well developed and we can lean 
upon it safely. That we have overcome our ignorance of the 
crop we know by the school of experience. We have beaten 
the New Orleans millers by building better mills in the rice 
country, where we have the largest and best mills in the 
world. We beat the rice speculators by compelling them to 
"buy in our home markets and pay for the rice on delivery. 
, One more problem. Proper DRAINAGE, and we are 
a long way ahead of any other rice growing country that wo 
know of to-day. A clay soil, easily flooded and capable of 
supporting the heaviest machinery. (No transplanting, no 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 19 

sickliug, no plowing, sowing, weeding or harvesting in water.) 
Can we solve and overcome this last obstacle to perfect suc- 
cess, DRAINAGE? On the ridge running from Lake Arthur 
on the south through Jennings and to China on the north it's 
a question of little importance, 20 to 30 feet above the Mer- 
mentau and the Nezpique, and on the west 10 feet above the 
Grand Marias. Water seeks its level and the problem of 
drainage is easy. Three-fourths of all rice lands in South- 
west Louisana can be drained inexpensively and without 
pumping ; one-fourth may, as many sugar planters do, use the 
pump and high levees. Canals and wells will both assist in this 
work of drainage. We will soon have a deep well on each 
quarter section. The water rises to within 8 to 12 feet of 
the surface, and water turned into these wells disappears as 
rapidly as if turned into a canal or the river, whenever they 
reach a strata of coarse sand and gravel. 

How does rice growing compare with cotton? We grow 
1620 pounds of rough rice per acre as a good average; this 
equals 1000 pounds of clean rice of the several grades, aver- 
age price four cents a pound, equals $40. 250 pounds of 
lint cotton and 500 pounds of seed is a good average yield of 
cotton. 250 pounds of cotton at 4 cents equals $10, and 500 
pounds of seed at $12 a ton equal $3, total $13, as against 
$40 for rice. How about wheat? A good average is ten 
bushels, suppose we say fifteen, at an average price of sixty 
cents a bushel, equals $9. As against $20 to $30 for rough 
rice, corn gives an average of $8 to $13, oats rather less and 
hay less than oats. And now the fact that after all these 
disasters and after the failure to harvest the last season's 
crop, more acreage will be put into rice than ever, tell us 
what the best men in the business think of the present out- 
look of agriculture in Southwest Louisiana. Since writing 
this the rice belt has had two remarkably fine harvests ; two 
good crops sold at good prices and the prices of land has 
doubled in the rice belt the present season. 



20 SOUTHWESTERN LOUlSIA^fA 



Rice. 

Its cultivation on the prairies of southavestern Louisiana.— does 

IT PAY? 

Riee is a cereal plant of the genus oryza. It is culti- 
vated in all warm climates and forms a large part of the food 
of those countries. It is light and nutritious and very easy 
of digestion. It is a staple of commerce all over the world 
and is largely used in the United States. 

Heretofore our supplies were mainly from Japan, Chin^i 
and the Carolinas. Laterly Louisiana has come into the mar- 
ket as a rice-producing country, and by the use of improved 
machinery in cultivating and harvesting has stepped to the 
front rank as a rice-producing State. 

The rough rice is sown on new or old laud prepared as 
for other grain. Fifty to sixty pounds per acre is suffi- 
cient. 

Level land capable of flooding is best. Soil, clay loam 
with clay sub-soil. Levees should be prepared as long as 
possible before seeding, and field should be flooded when 
rice is 6 to 12 inches high, with 4 to 12 inches of water. 
Sow from March 10 to June 20, and harvest in August, Sep- 
tember and October. 

In appearance rice much resembles wheat in its early 
growth. The head more nearly resembles oats, but the ker- 
nels resemble barley and are more closely packed in the head 
than oats. It stools thickly, having thirty to one hundred 
straws from one seed and one hundred to four hundred Seeds 
in a head. It is the only small cereal plant that yields Ihe 
hundredfold of Scripture. 

Rice raising for commerce began in Southwestern Louis- 
iana with the advent of the Iowa Colony and twine-binding 
harvesters, in 1884, when Maurice Brien, of Jennings, La., 
put a twine-binder in the field. 

In 1883 five acres was about the largest field; since then 
the growth has been rapid, as figures show. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 21 

The Southern Pacific Railroad shipped, in 1886, 2,000.000 
pounds; 1887, 4,000,000 pounds; 1888, 8,000,000 pounds; 
1889. 16,000,000 pounds; 1890, 60,000,000 pounds; 1891, 
180,000,000 pounds; 1892,300,000,000 pounds; crops to 
1898 approximated 250 million pounds yearly. 

In 1884 there was used 1 twine-binder. 

In 1885 there were used 5 twine-binders. 

In 1886 there were used 50 twine-binders. 

In 1887 there were used 200 twine-binders 

In 188S there were used 400 twine-binders. 

In 1890 there were used 1,000 twine binders. 

In 1891ihere were used 2,000 twine binders. 

In 1892 there were used 3,000 twine-binders. 

In 1894 there were used 3,200 twine-binders and 10 headers and 

binders, 10 feet cut. 
In 1900 there were used 4,500 twine-binders. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad shipped, in 1884, about 
250 cars of rice between Lake Charles and La Fayette ; in 
1889, over 1,000 cars; in 1890,2,000 cars; 1891,5,000 cars; 
and for 1892 and 1893, 10,000 cars. 

With good cultivation and care rice yields fifteen barrels 
(60 bushels) per acre. This has brought an average of ,$3 
per barrel — $45 per acre. 

The cost of growing, harvesting and marketing will gen- 
erally reach $1 per barrel, say $15 per acre, when you have 
to ])ump water by steam. Most of the rice is raised by 
artificial irrigation, canals, wells and pumping plants which 
raise the water to the field level. Some 300,000 acres are 
now being watered. 

Cost of growing an acre of rice, say fifteen barrels, is SI 5, 
and fifteen barrels of rice at the average, $3, is $45, leaving 
$30 net. 

Cost of raising ten barrels, about $10 ; value of ten bar- 
rels i9 $30, leaving $20 net. 

The total rice crop along the Atlantic Coast, 
1889, w^as 190,000 sacks. Louisiana raised 642,053 sacks. 

Our imports were about 500,000 sacks, 225 pounds of 
clean rice each. The total consumption of domestic and 
foreign rice ( Times- Democrat^ September 1,) is as follows : 



22 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Domestic Foreiga 

Sacks. Sacks. 

1884 '. 490,000 333,000 

1885 600,000 246,000 

1886 615,000 208.000 

1887 448,000 410,000 

1888 465.000 491,000 

1890 500.000 450,000 

1891 600,000 500.000 

1892 6n0.0<0 620.000 

1896 500,000 700,000 

1897 700,000 1,000,600 

" Domestic sacks weigli or represent one hundred and 
sixty lbs. of rough rice, while foreign sacks represent two hun- 
dred and twenty-five of clean product. That rice will retain its 
present price is usually the best opinion of the best men in 
the market." If so, then can the Louisiana planter compete 
with the old established planters in Carolina and on the 
Mississippi? I believe that Louisiana has the field, for many 
reasons: peculiarity of soil, heavy clay, supporting with ease 
the best agricultural machinery. One man with a machine 
and four mules has the working power of forty with a sickle. 
We have an abundant rainfall, supplemented JDy steam pumps 
and engines on hand, and numerous rivers and lakes to draw 
from, also a very long season in which to operate — from 
November to July for plowing and preparing ground and 
levees; March, April, May and June for seeding; August, 
September, October and November for threshing and market- 
ing. Rice can be grown and marketed at a cost of $1.00 per 
barrel of 162 pounds of rough. All above is a clear profit. 
Wheat, oats and corn are grown North and sold at actual cost 
of growing, and lands are sold at $30 to $100 per acre where 
those conditions exist. I hear it rumored that our competi- 
tors are out of the race at $2 a barrel. I do not hesitate to 
say that Southwestern Louisiana, with her improved 
machinery, her generous soil, wonderful climate and easy 
conditions, her splendid peo[)le, will be able still to let out a link 
or two and grow rice at a good round' profit for $1 a sack. I 
do not expect to see prices that low ; at the same time I 
believe the day of high prices for all manufactured products 
is past and I am glad of it. The day is near when eight 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 23 

hours' work will give each one a lull day's rations. A large 
part of the rice grown should be consumed on our farms. 
There is no better feed for stock, and none cheaper at present 
prices. Its uses will broaden with low prices. The good 
rice land is limited in quantity, and as population increases 
and its value as a food plant is made known, the tendency 
will be to stimulate prices and production. 

Egyptian or soft rice is best feed for stock, and some 
claim better yields and with less water. The country has 
been flooded not only with water but with machinery, ytt 
notwithstanding the low prices collections are much better 
than elsewhere. The lirst receipt of new rice in 1891 w^as 
August 31; 1890, July 31; 1889, August 1 ; 1888, July 29. 
Canals, artesian wells, pumps, engines, windmills, and im- 
proved machinery are wanted, and fortunes await the indus- 
trious men of genius and enterprise. Labor and intelligence 
are at a higher premium here than elsew^here. The crop of 
Louisiana for 1 892 will reach 2,000,000 of sacks— 400,000,000 
pounds of rough rice — 250,000,000 pounds of clean rice, at 
four cents a pound — $10,000,000. If Louisiana grows 260,- 
000,000 pounds of clean rice, then the balance of the Gulf 
States will grow about one-third as much, giving for the 
domestic product 333,000,000 pounds of clean, so we will 
have to import as much to equal consumption. 

The crop of 1898 has been cut 50 per cent, by rains. 
Prices have improved as much. The uses have broad- 
ened and now rice is being fed to all kinds of stock largely. 
There is little waste land in Southwestern Louisiana — low 
lands to rice and higher lands for cane, corn, oats, jDota- 
toes, truck and fruits. 

Better and cheaper methods of production are being 
adopted each year. But the broadening uses and increasing 
population wnll doubtless keep pace with production. Rice, 
sugar and cotton are the three mystic links that bind Louis- 
iana to the greatest prosperity. 



24 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Writ en for Louisiana Farmer and Rice Journal. 

IS THERE A UniT? 



Where is the limit to profitable rice-growing in South- 
west Louisiana? I say southwest Louisiana, because there 
is no other field in the United States that can compete with 
this. Brick Pomeroy, on his return from China, filled the 
Chicago papers with the possibilities of rice-growing in the 
great Northwest, but the article received no further attention 
after Brick left the city. 

Now and then we see in some paper an inquiry for 
upland rice seed. Some one may get a good price for a 
little white Honduras rice, but that customer never comes 
the second time. No rice-growers in the United States 
compete successfully with the growers of flooded rice in 
Southwest Louisiana. During the World's Fair at Chicago, 
while distributing books, maps and circulars, about Southwest 
Louisiana, I took occasion during six months to enquire of 
all foreign rice-growers the cost of growing and the selling 
prices in their different provinces. I became well assured 
that none of these can undersell us with the same standard 
of value. We will not be troubled with imported rice after 
the orientals adopt the genuine single gold standard (Japan's 
gold standard is not genuine.) 

The New York Grocer is authority for the statement that 
we import double the quantity that we grow. Taking that to 
1)0 about correct, then we have the question : How long will 
it take to grow three times the present amount, and also 
provide for its broadeninar uses and the ever-increasing popu- 
lation.^ How easy my question could be answered now by 
the rule of three? If in one hundred years we have been 
able to grow one-third of our consumption, how many years 
will it take to grow it all ? Such a solution would be very 
pleasant and desirable to me, for I find myself on very uncer- 
tain ground. Each morning we are told of another canal 
project, and it looks to-day as if the domestic supply in 
Southwest Louisiana might l)e increased fifty per cent in one 
season, 

I have been a resident here fifteen years, and am entirely 
familiar with the industry, and especially its modern growth. 
So I thought I had chosen a subject that would prove an easy 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 2$ 

one. But, instead, I find that there are no precedents or 
facts to base arguments upon, and in the place of facts the 
field is full of speculations and of uncertain quantities. 

While there is plenty of available land well adapted to 
rice, and nearly everything else, the question of the water 
supply presents itself. Rice must be flooded about sixty days. 
Will the rivers, lakes and bayous furnish suflicient water ta 
Hood beyond the amount now in contemplation? Will there 
be some way of reaching the large prairies far away from 
water? Will deep wells successfnlly flood these lauds, for 
in Southwest Louisiana all lands are rice lands that can be 
flooded? Wells twenty feet deep will supply plenty of water 
for domestic use, stock, etc., and it appears at a depth of a 
170 to 200 feet there is a supply of water that is inexhaust- 
ible. This is beneath alternate layers of clay and quick sand 
into a coarse gravel. The present outlook, after sinking 
many wells, is that all these lands can be supplied with water 
profitably to the owner. Then if rice can be flooded profit- 
ably, what about simple irrigation of sugar cane, corn, oats^ 
potatoes, and similar crops' from the same sources ? The cost 
would be merely nominal. 

Will the increase in consumption keep pace with tli6 
increase in production? The direction in which there can 
be the largest immediate increase will be the feeding of rice 
to stock to compete with corn, oats, wheat and bran, now put 
on our markets at three-quarters to one cent a pound. Rice 
can be grown pound for pound cheaper than wheat, corn and 
oats here, and I believe as cheaply as they can be grov.u 
anywhere north of us. Rice is a better feed stuff than any 
of the others alone, and rice bran, polish and sweet potatoes 
make a feed that excels anything I have tried, especially for 
dairy stock. Take good sound rice to the feed mill, grind it 
and feed your horses, jnules and cattle, and they will soon 
get fat and sleek. We have tried this five years. It beats 
corn or oats for milk or work. The field is almost unlimited. 

Rice-growing will be limited by the price. If the price 
is below cost, then the farmer will become a planter. Sugar 
cane will supersede the rice industry, as these rice lands are 
generally well adapted to cane-growing. The sugar cane of 
our prairies, for some good reason, is fifty per cent, sweeter 
than that of alluvial districts, and the tonnage equally as 
great. With our better facilities for irrigation the yield can 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 27 

be increased fifty to 100 jDer cent. Thirty tons per acre will 
be a small average with plenty of water. Only think of thirty 
tons per acre at the present price, $3 to 83.50 a ton, equal to 
$90 at least! And this, too, at an average cost of $40 per 
acre, leaving !|50 profit, I am not talking in the air, as 
some may think, but good practical horse sense. I have 
fijrown forty tons an acre on the prairie and at less cost than 
|40 Moreover, it tested seventeen and a half per ci^it. 
sucrose. Others have done as well, and, during this diy 
season witliout irrigation, a number have said to me that 
they grew thirty to thirty-five tons per acre. It would be 
entirely possible to grow forty to fifty tons per acre with our 
coming system of irrigation. 

Then what is the conclusion of the whole matter? If 
my premises are correct tiie logical conclusion is that as 
long as wheat, oats and corn can be grown profitably nortli, 
rice will be profitably grown in Southwest Louisiana. As 
that result is so very important and so many are asking the 
question — will you not overdo the rice business ? I will go 
into detail, 

Rice with water will average ten sacks, say 2,000 pounds 
per acre. It costs $10 per acre to grow, and is worth, say 
one cent a pound, which makes $20. Wheat gives an average 
yield of ten bushels, 600 pounds to the acre, at a cost 
of about $7. This gives a cost of ^21.00 to grow ],800 
pounds. 

Corn gives an average yield of thirty bushels, 1,800 
pounds to the acre, at a cost of about $11. 

Oats give an average yield of forty bushels, 1,280 pounds 
per acre. It takes one and one-half acres to make 1,800 
pounds to equal rice. The average cost of an acre of oats, 
is, say S7, making one and a half acres of oats cost $10.50. 

From these conservative figures the comparative profit 
in rice can be readily seen. We meet the inquiry on every 
hand, and especially from every homeseeker — will there not 
be overproduction? And I must confess our answers have 
been very indefinite and not assuring. But I am sure that 
anyone who will read this article carefully, will come to the 
same conclusion that the writer came to, that there is room 
for a great growth in the rice industry, and that it is profit- 
able. In addition to being profitable, it is, with flooding, an 



28 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



almost absolutely sure crop, and the water is a fertilizer, so 
that no more is needed for successful rice-growing. 

The limit to profitable rice-growing will not be reached 
as long as there is stock to fatten or people to feed. Or, in 
other words, there can be no overproduction in this world as 
long as there is a hungry man in it. We are only a speck 
in the grand old universe of God, and we can't overstock it. 



Partial List of Canals and Pumping Plants for 

Estimated 

Name. Acres Ir. 

Duson & Abbott, Canal and Pumping- Plant 12,000 

J. R. Roller & Co., " " " 8,000 

A. Kaplan, " " •' 

Morris & Miller, '• " " 8,000 

Abbott Eros , " '' " 7,000 

W. W. Dusop, " " " 6,000 

Wa tfertown Canal and Pumping- Plant 800 

Hurd ct Wrigrht, " " " 500 

S, L Peck, Pumping Plant 300 

Cary & Bibbins. Canal und Pumpin«r Plant 500 

Maig-naud Canal, " " " 500 

McFarlain Ir. Co., Canal and '• " 6,000 

A. D. McFarlain< " '- " 3,000 

Wilkinson Canal and Pumping- Plant 3,000 

Jenning-s Ir. Co., Canal and Pumping- Plant 3,000 

C.L.Shaw, " " " 500 

Riverside Ir. Co., " " " 4.500 

Gauthier & Sons, " " " 500 

Lacasine Ir. Co., " " " 2 500 

Lakeside Ir. Co., " " " 3,500 

Williams & Cooper, " " " 1.500 

P J. Unkel, " " " 500 

Nor-wood Ir. Co., •' " " 500 

EckJes, " " " 300 

W. R. Conklin, " " " 500 

A A. Call, " " " 1,000 

D. Dfrouen, " " " 250 

William Spurg-in, " " " 1,500 

Q. B Spencer, " " " 300 

Mayvill- Canal Co., " " " 4.000 

Holton & Winn, Canal and Pumping- Plant 1,000 

J. H. Bloee, Pumping- Plant.. 200 

Pomeroy & Sons, Canal and Pumping Plant 500 

C.A Lowry & Co., •' " " 7,000 

Stafford «fe Links-weiler, " " " 3, GOO 

J. H. Houck, Canal and Pumping Plant 400 

D.Herbert, " " - 400 

J.B.Foley. ' " " 1,100 

French & Ward, " " " . 500 

Laurents & Broussard, Canal & Pumping Plant 200 

H. C Clay, Cans! and Pumping Plant 2.000 

E I. Hall, Canal and Pumping Plant 1,000 

Bridgford & Crow, Canal and Pumping Plant. .. 400 

Frazer & Nason, " " " 2,500 

Lake .Bros., " " " .. 3 500 

H.C.Drew, " " •' .. 6,000 

W.Allen, " " " .. 200 

Felix Perkins, " " " .. 160 

Lake Benton Canal (projected) 

Villere & Duhan, " " " 160 

Ed Morris " " " 1,000 

Midland Canal Company 5,000 

O E Moore, " " " 1-000 
Bradford Canal, " " " ..(projected) 

S. A Robertson, Canal and Pumping Plant 2,000 

Xlaywood Rice, Canal & Milling Co 



Flooding Rice 

Post Office. 
Cro-wl«y, La. 



Mermentau, La. 



Jennings, La. 



Lake Arthur, La- 
Shell Beach, La. 
Lakeside, La. 
Lake Charles, La. 

Lake Charles, La. 

Lacasine, La. 
Midland, La. 
Kinder, La. 
Rayne, La. 
Sulphur City, La. 
Ray-wood, Texas. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



29 



Canals. — Continued. 

Estimateil 
Acres Ir. 

Walker & Underwood, Canal and P. Plant 

Trinity Canal & Irrig^ation Co 

L. E. Kobinson, Canal and Pumping Plant 1 000 

Hall & Stutts, '' " •• .... 5,000 

Farmer's Canal & Irrigrating' Co 20,000 

Moss '• '• " 2,500 

Verkins Pumping- Plant 800 

Vermillion Development Cc, C and P Plant.. 22,000 

R. U. Mills, Canal and Pumping- Plant 2,500 

S. S. Hunter, " " " (proiected) 

20 Canals built in 1900 in rice belt. 



Post Office. 
Terry, Texas. 
Trinity, Texaci, 
Welsh, lia. 
Abbeville, La. 



Post Office 
Address. 



PARTIAL LIST OF WELLS FOR FLOODING RICE. 

No. Size 

Name. Wells. Wells. 

Maurice Brien 2 6 inches. Jennings. 

S. L. Cary & Son 2 6" 

Edward Bucklin 16" " 

V. M.Twitchell 2 6" 

T. H. Roberts 2 6" 

A. Barber (flowing) 18" 

y^ ttr -n W» • ( 1 6 inches.) " 

G. W. Remage rr. "/ 1 8 " I " 

G. H. Morse (flowing) 10 2 " 

C.H.Dunham 16" " 

J, W. Roberts 18" 

Albert Anderson 18" " 

Cook & Snyder...' 2 6" " 

F. R. Jaenke 18" 

Q^ Wendling & Son 2 6" Crowley. 

Joseph i:*'leish 16" " 

I.H.Robinson 2 4" 

Fenton Bros 1 6 " Fenton. 

A.E.Ellis 16" 

Winsted Jones 4 8" " 

John Robinson 2 8 " " 

Landers & Donnelly ■. ,-, o u '[ Gueydan. 

Booze & Hutcheson 2 6" Roanoke, 

W. C.Gragg 16" 

Mr. Dunham 1 8 " Welsh. 

F. Peabody 16" " 

E. S. Abbo'.t J 18" " 

Mr. Williams 4 8" Prairie Hays. 

Mr. Cambean 4 8" 

TT m 1 (26 inches.) , ,, 

Horace Taylor ] 9 o u h 

M. V. Marsh 16" Whitehouse. 

George Bult 16" Basile. 

L. Viterbo, Kaufman & Bel 50 6 " Beaumont, Tex. 

200 Wells 6 to 12 inches in rice belt. 



A MODEL PLANTATION. 

J. F WELLINGTON. 



As the years roll by and the rice industry in Southwest 
Louisiana is accorded its Just measure of credit, as a wealth 
producer, more or less interest will be taken in its history. 
When the historians of the future turn back the pages of the 



30 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

past they will discover that the most important epoch in the 
history of rice culture comprises the last three months of 
1897 and the first three of 1898. Those "Golden Days" of 
prosperity witnessed a phenomenal increase in the number 
and size of pumping plants and canals throughout the rice 
region. 

Two years of drouth in succession, for the first time in 
our history, had demonstrated the impossibility of raising 
rice without water. During those two years, the few rice 
planters who owned and operated pumping plants, produced 
at least seventy-five per cent of all the rice raised in the 
prairie region. After the Providence crop of 1897 was 
known to be a failure and the magnifi,cence of the irrigated 
crop was assured, a stampede occurred to the pump lands. 
I speak particularly of eastern Calcasieu parish, as I am 
thoroughly familiar with the situation in that locality. 
Engineers were employed and levels were taken over thou- 
sands of acres, sites for pumping plants were examined and 
the capacity of lakes and rivers estimated by experts. 

From the 15th of October to the 15th of March, one 
real estate firm in Jennings sold 19,000 acres of rice land. 
Of this amount, 925 acres were purchased by northern or 
western men. All the remainder went to men who live in 
this vicinity and have made their money by raising rice. 
Within a radius of fifteen miles of Jennings, twelve new 
plants are now under construction and will be ready for 
operation in time to insure the crop for 1898. 

Each of these plants is a monument to the wealth pro- 
ducing qualities of rice industry. 

Among these monuments are many that deserve more 
than a passing notice. One of the most complete and up to 
date plants with which I am familiar is that of the Lakeside 
Irrigation Co. L't'd, whose home office is at Shell Beach, La. 
In November, 1897, E. F. Rowson and Dr. E. 1. Hall of 
Jennings, purchased 4,000 acres of raw prairie, on the south 
side of Lake Arthur and twelve and one-half miles from 
Jennings. 

January 1, 1898, the above company was formed, S. B. 
Carpenter, of Cresco, la., Geo. A. Sundberg and John Boyum, 
of Mayville, N. D., becoming stockholders. 

It was then decided to immediately put in a pumping 
plant, construct canals and operate the entire tract upon the 
tenant system. 

June 1, 1898, at the beginning of the pumping season, 
this company will have in operation five miles of navigable 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 31 

canal through which busy tugs will tow barge loads of rice 
to market and bring in coal, groceries and other supplies. 

In addition to this canal, tliere will be eight miles of irri- 
gating canals, varying in width from sixty to one hundred 
feet. Thirteen new houses have been built, containing from 
four to eight rooms each, for the use of the tenants. They 
are all occupied, and a more contented looking lot of agricul- 
turalists would be hard to find in any country. Barns, fences 
and out-buildings are all new and modern ; graded roads are 
found at convenient distances throughout the plantation, with 
good bridges wherever necessary. The pumping plant consists 
of two 100 horse power boilers, two 80 horse power engines and 
two six foot McStravick pumps. The capacity of the plant 
is G,000 acres. 3,000 acres of rice will be raised this year. 
All complete and ready to operate, the entire property repre- 
sents the investment of .|^75,000. Every tenant is an equal 
partner with his landlord. The company furnishes laud, 
water, buildings, fence and seed. The tenant furnishes the 
teams, machinery, feed and labor. The crop is divided at the 
threshing machine, each getting one-half. A conservative 
estimate of results may not be out of place in this connection. 
The yield from irrigated lands in that vicinity has never been 
as low as eight barrels per acre. For absolute safety, we 
will place it at that figure. This would give the company 
12,000 barrels as its share of the crop. Good rice sold last; 
year at from $2.75 to $4.25 per barrel, if only $2.50 should 
be realized this year, the company would still have |30,000 
of an income from which to pay running expenses and divi- 
dends upon the stock. 

To would-be investors, I will say that this statement will 
stand investigation. The other side of the question will also 
bear thorough examination. One man and a team can handle 
one hundred acres of rice, except in harvest, one extra man 
is all that is required at that time. 

When we consider that the tenant has no expense 
except his living, horse feed and labor, with a practically 
sure income of $1,000 for each man and team that lie 
works, that he has no possible show to lose anything and 
that he is only required to work as much as in the noithern 
states, it really looks as though a tenant on a rice plantation 
is ill a fair way to make as much money as his northern 
brother, who does well if he makes expenses on a rented 
farm, extra well if he clears $200.00 on a quarter section 
that he owns, gets gay and moves to town if the fates smile 
upon him and he makes as mucli as $600.00 in one year. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 33 

RICE=QROWINQ 

IS A RECENT DEVELOPEMENT IN AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 

Written for the Sunday St. Louis Republic, May, 1899. 

The recent organization in St. Louis of the Trinity Rice- 
land and Irrigation Company with a capitalization of $200,000 
has called attention to the fact that a new departure in agri- 
culture is now being developed in Texas — the culture of rice. 
The Trinity Company is officered by C. F. Blanke of St. Louis, 
as president, W. C, Moore of Houston, Tex., as vice president, 
F. W. Schwettmann of Lincoln, Mo., as secretary, and Charles 
L. Heitzeberg of St. Louis as treasurer. It is stated that over 
half the stock was promptly subscribed by Missouri people. 

St. Louis money was not invested in Texas ricelands 
until a careful investigation had been made. A committee 
was sent from here to view the situation and so satisfactory 
was its report that 15,000 acres of land in the northeastern 
part of Chambers County, Texas, was purchased. 

Vice President W. E. Moore of Houston, Tex., the first 
to call the attention of local capitalists to the opportunity 
offered by the Texas ricelands, was in St. Louis a few days 
ago. He gave some details of the innovation: 

" The developement of this crop," said Mr. Moore, " in 
certain sections of Texas and Louisiana is marvelous, and an 
investigation is only necessary to create enthusiasm as to the 
profits of this crop. The great trouble, is, the American peo- 
ple always associate Chinamen and rice as being of the eame 
family, and not caring to cultivate the former, they manifest 
little interest in the latter. The investigation, however, re- 
veals a startling comparison, for while one is associated with 
the idea of cheapness, the other opens up avenues for riches. 
Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas is recognized as the 
best section of America for the culture of this crop. This 
territory extends inland from the coast a distance of about 
50 miles running east and west for probably 200 miles. 

" For the growing and successful maturity of rice it re- 
quires a peculiarity of soil and climate. The land is prepared 
the same as for wheat or other small grain, and the seed then 
sown broadcast or in drills, about one and one-fourth bushels 
being used to the acre. When the crop comes up it resem- 
bles nothing so much as a wheat field, the blades when first 
appearing being identical in shape and color with wheat. 



34 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Level land, or that as nearly so as possible, is selected for the 
rice farm. Before the crop is planted levees are thrown up 
around the fields for the purpose of holding water on them. 
This work is usually done with large levee plows, made for 
the purpose. When the rice is from six to twelve inches in 
height, it is flooded with water. In the early history of the 
industry the natural rain fall was depended upon for this pur- 
pose, and rice was only planted on the lowest lands, using the 
higher lands for water sheds, from which the water was 
drained into the rice fields; but as rice raising depends upon 
a supply of water, there was always a degree of uncertainty 
that rendered the possibility of a failure or partial failure not 
improbable. Especially was this so in view of the large profits 
that were being made and the consequent temptation on the 
part of the planters to encroach upon higher lands in order to 
raise more rice. 

"Rice is flooded from two to twelve inches and kept flooded 
during all of the growing season, until the heads have become 
filled and the crop begins to ripen, when the levees are cut 
and the water allowed to run off, thus giving the ground time 
to dry and harden before harvesting time. The harvest sea- 
son does not differ from the harvesting of wheat or oats in the 
Northern States. After cutting, the rice is allowed to stand 
in a shock from two to three weeks before staking, as, owing 
to the excessive amount of moisture in the straw, it takes 
longer to dry out than other grain. The crop is harvested at 
the same expense and in the same manner with self-binding 
harvesters as other small grain. The yield is about three 
times that of wheat. It is threshed by the steam tresher and 
is put in large sacks holding about four bushels, when it is 
ready for market. Under favorable conditions, it produces 
from twelve to eighteen barrels per acre, the average price for 
the past ten years being ^2.00 per barrel. 

" Probably the greatest element in the transformation of 
the industry from a small and insignificant beginning to what 
is recognized to-day as one of the leading and best-paying in- 
dustries in the Southern States may be found in the extensive 
system of irrigation that has been established in the last few 
years. The most sanguine believers in rice culture never ex- 
pected to see the many inexhaustible streams and bayous with 
which this prairie region abounds and which connect the large 
bodies of fresh water lakes and bays lying clcse to the Gulf 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



35 



coast, utilized for irrigation purposes, on account of the high 
lift from these streams, which, in many instances, is from 
twenty to sixty feet. In consequence, thousands upon thou- 
sands of acres of high laud that was supposed to bo inacces- 
sible for the purpose have proven to be a 'bonanza' to their 
owners. They have on this account suddenly developed an 
intrinsic value that readily places them by the side of the 
most valued agricultural lands in the United States. 

These large canals are always kept on the highest ridges 
of land and are built by throwing up parallel levees from the 
outside, making what might be termed an overland canal, in- 
stead of cutting below the surface, thus keeping the water 
supply above all lands to be supplied. This system of irriga- 
tion, on a large scale, has completely revolutionized rice-rais- 
ing. It has eliminated many of the disagreeable features from 
the industry, not the least among which was an uncertainty 
attached to the planting of the crop, and depending for its 
success upon the rainfall. It has placed it upon a solid and 
profitable basis, when men of means engage in it upon a large 
scale without prejudicing the advantages of the man with less 
capital who farms on a small scale; and more than this, it 
insures to him a degree of success both as to quality and 
quantity of the product that cannot be obtained where a lim- 
ited supply of water is at hand. The raising of rice under 
the present system of irrigation is reduced to a simple busi- 
ness proposition, on which any man of fair business ability 
ought to be able to figure iutelligently and arrive at a conclu- 
sion as to the profitableness or unprofitableness of rice raising. 

The cost of the water, which Is one of the most expens- 
ive items connected with the rice industiy, under this system 
has been reduced to a minimum, as a hundred plantations can 
be supplied from one plant at 50 per cent of what it would 
cost if supplied by separate plants for each farm. One end 
of these rice irrigation canals begins at the bank of some in- 
exhaustible stream of water or its tributary, and immense 
pumping plants at this point lift the water to the necessary 
elevation. It requires two and three complete pumping out- 
fits, the first of which carries the water to a certain height, 
where it is emptied into a portion of the lower canal or reser- 
voir, thence it is relifted by another pump, and so on until the 
necessary elevation has been attainedo The water is then 
sent through the main canal and laterals built through prairie, 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PAai-IC 37 

feeding the rice farms with water, which is drawn from these 
canals by plank flumes going through the levees and letting 
it into the fields at the will of the farmer by the use of flood- 
gates. The pumping capacity of these plants varies in ac- 
cordance with the laud to be irrigated. Some of them reach 
the enormous amount of 90,000 gallons of water per minute, 
and these pumps run day and night, beginning in June and 
stoppiug the latter part of August. You will readily perceive 
that this is a very great volume of water, and where several 
of these pumping plants are located on a large tributary of 
the greater streams, the current is changed, and were it not 
fed from an inexhaustible source, it would be dry in very- 
short order. 

As to the profits of this class of farming, Mr. Frank M. 
Hammou writes from Port Arthur, Tex., April 4, 1899: "Our 
canal will carry water for 5,000 acres of land. We had last 
.year under our canal 700 acres in rice. We will have this 
year 1,400 acres. There is no improved land under our canal 
for sale, to my knowledge. I made a crop last year of #22,- 
000 on 500 acres of land. You can form your own idea re- 
garding the value of this land after one year's crop, as it 
would simply be a matter of opinion with me to place a price 
upon it. Our company last year, from the profits of our crop 
and canal, paid the interest on $50,000 in bonds and declared 
a dividend of 6 per cent on $100,000 in stock, and still had 
a profit left. 

George H. Easte of Beaumont, Tex., says he was a ten- 
ant in 1898, and from 234 acres in rice that year he received 
$8,579.46 as his share, which was three-fourths of the entire 
crop, the other fourth having gone to the land owner as rent. 

The Raymond Rice Canal and Milling Company, an Iowa 
concern, write that their rice land in Louisiana has more than 
doubled in value in the last eighteen months, while of their 
Texas rice plantation of 15,000 acres just purchased not an 
acre is for sale even at 100 per cent advance. They fully 
expect it to pay a rental of $8 per acre as well as f 5 per acre 
for water." 

No people are more prosperous than the rice farmers 
along these irrigating canals. They have the best and can af- 
ford the best. They do not fear competition or overproduc- 
tion, for the reason that the territory in which this crop is 



38 SOUTHWF STERN LOUISIANA 

grown is limited and when it is all put into cultivation the> 
United States will still import rice, upon which there is a 
duty of 2 cents a pound. Mr. Moore said that a great num- 
ber of settlers from Iowa, Illinois and Missouri had located 
in the rice districts, and in the past six months a million 
and a half dollars had been invested in these lands for fut- 
ure developement. 

RICE CULTURE IN THE SOUTH. 



BY S. A. KNAPP. 

We are rapidly approaching the area of a universal 
density of population. To the people of the United States it 
has hitherto seemed a remote problem. The revelations of 
the last census show that within the present century we shall 
be confronted with the problem of a sufficient home food 
supply, instead of sending an enormous surplus to the old 
world. Thus far we have paid no attention to the economic 
value of food nor its digestibility in our efforts to gratify the 
appetite. In fact, fifty years ago such values were unknown 
to the scientific world. Now we realize the amazing waste 
resulting from the selection of food on the basis of tastes 
instead of the amount of nourishment contained. As seven- 
eighths of the food consumed is on an average expended in 
the production of energy, the value of foods should largely 
be based on the amount of energy they will produce in the 
human body. It is interesting to note what a revolution in 
prices this would produce. On the basis of the amount of 
energy a food will impart, taking wheat flour as a standard 
at 2 J cents per pound: good beef steak (round) should be 
sold at 1 1-10 cents per pound; porterhouse at 1 66-100 
cents; turkey — the edible part — at 2 cents; chickens 
— broilers — at J of a cent; Irish potatoes at 3 1-10 of a 
cent; butter at 6| cents; cream cheese at 3 1-10 cents; 
red snapper at 4 1-10 of a cent ; corn meal at 2 47-100 cents ; 
oat meal at 2 80-100 cents; invalid food, such as malted 
milk, at 1 6-10 cents, and rice at 2 52-100 cents. 

Three articles on this list are superior to rice, to-wit, 
oatmeal, butter and cheese, but their superiority is due solely 
to the large portion of fat in each. The consumption of fat 
in the body is like burning pitch pine under a boiler. It 
makes steam, but it soon burns out the shell. Fat makes toe 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 39 

liot a fire for warm countries. If perfect consumption and 
slight tax upon the system be considered rice again takes rank 
among the first of foods in value. Where rice is the principal 
food, dyspepsia and other forms of indigestion are rarely 
found, and there is perfect health and great endurance. 

In Japan it is a common saying among resident Ameri- 
can women, " I could do that if I had a Japanese back," 
referring to the strength of loin possessed by the native 
women. Every traveler in that distant land has noted with 
surprise the ease with which a jiurickishaw boy will draw a 
man six miles an hour along the streets of Tokio. In the late 
rapid advance upon Pekin it was found that the Japanese 
could outmarch all the armies of the Occident. With full 
equipment they advanced all day at double-quick and repeated 
it till even the Russians fell behind exhausted. These women 
with backs, these jinrikishaw boys with the speed of a horse, 
and these double-quick soldiers, live on rice, bean soup and 
fish. The Chinese coolie works in the rice marshes of Siam, 
under a tropical sun, breathes malaria, drinks stagnant water, 
and remains in perfect health. He lives on rice. 

In selecting food for dense population, certainty of the 
crop is an important consideration, especially where any con- 
siderable failure is significant of the death of a portion of the 
people. Rice, when properly cultivated, is the most certain 
crop of all the cereals. In the Orient it has been bred and 
trained to withstand the sweeping monsoon and the furious 
tornado. Last spring a farmer on the lower Colorado river, 
in Texas, planted 150 acres with imported Japan seed rice. 
The Galveston tornado destroyed all of his cotton, but his 
lice successfully withstood the storm and yielded seventeen 
l)arrel9 per acre. Given a suitable eoil, plenty of water and 
intelligent husbandry, and the rice crop may be depended 
upon with a greater regularity than bank dividends. 

A third reason for adopting rice as a staple food supply 
in countries of dense population, is that annual crop does not 
exhaust the soil as rapidly as other cereals, the water of irri- 
gation furnishing a material amount of plant food, and in 
some countries a winter renovating crop, as clover in Egypt, 
is used, making it possible to continuously crop a field in 
lice for an indefinite period. Further, a staple food for a 
warm climate must be one that can be easily preserved from 
one season to another. In the tropics corn and wheat cannot 



40 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



constitute the staple food except in sparsely settled sections^ 
where corn can be held in the shuck. Corn meal and wheat 
flour are soon spoiled, weevil and must speedily make them 
unfit for use ; but rice can be stored with reasonable safety^ 
It can be prepared and cooked with the crudest implements^ 
and is a healthful food for people of all ages and all condi- 
tions. It is fair, therefore, to assume that the consumption 
of rice in the United States will increase more rapidly than 
the population, all other things being equal. A dense popu- 
lation will demand it. 

Fifteen years since it appeared highly improbable that rice 
would ever occupy any commanding position in the food mar- 
kets of this country. Wheat and corn imperially controlled 
the situation and were dominating the markets of the world. 
The spinning jenny and the power loom did not do more to 
enthrone the cotton industry than the machine seeder, the 
twine binder and the steam thresher did to make wheat chief 
of cereals. Rice, in all this period of the evolution of wheat,, 
remained stationary. Fifty years ago it was planted, har- 
vested and milled the world over precisely as it w as 2000' 
years before America was discovered, and to all appearances; 
there would be no improvement for the ensuing twenty cen- 
turies. One day some bold optimists conceived the idea that 
improved farm machinery could be adjusted to the rice 
industry. After many trials and failures it was a success. 
The gang plow, the horse drill and the twine binder and the 
steam thresher took possession of the rice fields. This involved 
a revolution, to-wit, the Southern States would become in the 
near future large contributors to the world's food supply as; 
well as to her fiber supply. 

I have digressed somewhat from the topic assigned me, 
" Rice Culture in the South," to discuss some of the general 
propositions relating to rice but necessary to a full under- 
standing of the situation. It is needless to enter into an 
account of the introduction of rice into the United States. It 
is sufficient to state that its cultivation until recently was 
along old lines and that its production appeared likely to 
decrease, owing to the stronger competion from India and 
Siam, due to the construction of the Suez canal and the 
employment of larger steamships in the Oriental eervice, 
greatly reducing the cost of transportation. Until 1885 rice- 
production in the United States was practically limited to 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 41 

the alluvial lands of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and 
Louisiana, and it then appeared that the industry could not 
successfully meet the competition of the bonanza wheat farms 
of the northwestern prairies on the one hand and the low- 
price labor of India on the other, but when machinery was 
adjusted to rice production and it was discovered that the 
prairie lands of Southwestern Louisiana and Southern Texas 
with their impervious subsoils, would dry out before the rice 
harvest sufficiently to hold up machinery, rice began to assert 
tje supremacy which she held as a world's food while the use 
of machinery in the fields of husbandry was unknown. 
This coast rice belt in Louisiana and Texas includes over 
12,000 square miles of fairly level, and very fertile prairie. 
Prior to the invasion of this territory by rice, the land was 
regarded as almost worthless, except for stock range. Sub- 
S3queutly it was ascertained that the soil was rich in plant 
food, and that its non-productive condition was due solely to 
the lack of drainage. This rice belt is bisected by ten navig- 
able rivers and by many smaller streams, all conveying fresh, 
soft water, comparatively free from silt. Prices of land were 
barely above the cost of government entry. Settlers from 
many sections of the country began to camp upon this terri- 
tory with improved machinery. Some people shook their 
heads, but they shook out their plows, their drills and their 
binders, and went to work. 

In nearly every town there are one or more ridges 
slightly above the surrounding land. On these surfaces 
canals were built from 20 to 150 feet wide, according to the 
area to be watered. The sides of the canals were raised 
from 4 to 5 feet with plows and scrapers, or with grading 
machinery. Laterals were run from the main canal to 
accommodate remote farms. Powerful pumping plants were 
located on the banks of the river at the head of the surface 
canals. These canals, when well constructed and operated, 
proved entirely successful and made the rice crop a practical 
certainty over a large section of country. 

Scarcely had the surface canals been accepted as a success 
when Southwest Louisiana was startled by the announcement 
that there were strata of gravel at 125 to 200 feet under the 
surface of the entire section, containing unlimited supply of 
water, which would, of its own pressure, come so near the 
surface that it could be easily pumped. This was received 



42 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

with considerable incredulity at first, but repeated tests 
proved that there is a bed of gravel nearly fifty feet in thick- 
ness underlying this section of Louisiana which carries a large 
amount of soft water. Pipes of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 inches in 
diameter have been sunk to the gravel and pumped continu- 
ously for months without diminution of supply. The water 
is soft, at a constant temperature of about 70 degrees, 
and absolutely free from all seeds and injurious minerals. 
Such is the facility with which these wells are made that a 
6-inch tube has been put down to the full depth required — 
200 feet — in 14 hours. 

The total cost of a well or wells and pumping outfit suf- 
ficient for 200 acres of rice is from $1500 to $2000, and for 
600 acres about $3500, or $7 per acre. It is probable that 
over 50,000 acres of rice will be irrigated by wells the ensu- 
ing season. The cost of such irrigation is from $1 to $2 per 
acre for the season, depending upon the cost of fuel and 
other conditions. Where plantations are remote from timber 
and the railroad, the gasoline engine will be used. Since it 
has been found possible to transmit electricity with very small 
loss to distant motors, the plan has been in contemplation to 
equip ten or twenty thousand acres with wells and electric 
motors, and furnish power from a central plant, using the 
same power for milling the rice, when not in use for pumping. 

The evolution in milling rice has been as great as the 
production. 

PRIMITIVE RICE MILLING. 

The primitive method of milling rice was to place a small 
quantity in a hollow stone or block of wood and pound it with 
a pestle. The blow with the pestle cracked the hull, and the 
friction created by the sliding motion of the rice under the 
blow removed the hull and the cuticle. The bran and hulls 
were then removed by winnowing. The first advance upon 
this piimitive mechanical process was to take the receptacle 
for the rice out of a short section of a hollow log, using a 
heavy wooden pounder, bound to a horizontal beam six to 
eight feet long, resting on a fulcrum four to five feet from the 
pounder. The pounder was raised by stepping on the short 
end of the beam, and by suddenly removing the weight, the 
pounder dropped into the rice tub and delivered a blow. 

As one passes along the street in an oriental city, a 
peculiar sound is brought to the ear as of a blow delivered 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 43 

upon some yielding substance. Looking to tho right or left 
one sees a rice mill, consisting of a one-man power, jumping 
on and off the beam of the pounder, and one-woman power at 
a crude fanning mill cleaning the grain. Such a mill cleans 
about 11 bushels (a trifle over three barrels) of paddy rice 
per day, at a cost of six cents (gold) per barrel. 

Where practicable, water power is used to turn an over- 
shot wheel, which is geared to a long horizontal shaft, with 
arms at distances apart equal to that of the rice pounders. 

In every mountain village in Japan such mills may be 
found preparing the rice for local consumption. They usually 
have about eight pounders and mill 96 bushels daily, or 
"26 2-3 barrels of paddy rice, at a cost of about 2 cents per 
barrel, which is more than paid for by the offal. In cities 
steam power is used, and the number of pounders greatly 
increased, but the process is practically unchanged. 

Our modern rice mill is an automaton of complicated 
machinery, into which the rough rice passes and finally 
appears ready for market, graded, sacked, and weighed, at the 
rate of 20,000 to 200,000 pounds per day, according to 
capacity. 

Thus far the evolution of rice in its production and mill- 
ing processes have gone forward with perfect success upon 
Southern soil. The problem now widens, It is one of 
economic distribution. The producer of wheat in Dakota 
receives within a third of a cent per pound of the sum the 
consumer in Louisiana pays for the flour. In case of wheat, 
transportation, milling and profits are kept within a third of a 
cent per pound. Revising it, the consumer of rice in Dakota 
pays five cents per pound more than the farmer in Louisiana 
receives at his home market. That is, it costs fifteen times 
as much to mill and market rice as it does to mill and market 
wheat. When I was a boy I held my atlas on an incline in 
front of me, and somehow the idea took possession of me 
that it was always uphill toward the north pole. Transporta- 
tion lines must have arrived at some such conception, and 
are charging for heavy grades in moving freights towards the 
north. However, the battle of the toiling millions for cheap 
food will soon arbitrate the question in favor of rice, and 
the two great staples, wheat and rice, will be placed upon 
the same footing commercially. With transportation and 
other questions o! economic distribution adjusted, the 



44 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

producers of rice will enter on a battle royal with the pro- 
ducers of wheat. With what result? In India, China and 
Japan, which contain about one-half the population of the 
world, wheat and rice have been produced for decades of cen- 
turies under similar conditions. Both are cultivated and 
harvested by the crudest hand processes. There, under 
similar conditions, the result has been favorable to rice. In 
the United States both are machine products, upon a parity. 
Rice has against it the greater cost of irrigation and of 
cutting. It has in its favor a larger yield per acre, a 
more certain crop, and an adaptation to rich low lands 
unsuited to wheat. The bi-products of rice are fully as valu- 
able as those of wheat. The straw is superior as a stock 
food. Thousands of tons of rice straw have been sold this 
year in Louisiana for $4 to $6 per ton to stockmen. Rice 
bran and rice polish rank for food with wheat bran and wheat 
middlings. 

It should be noted that wheat production in the United 
States has passed the meridian of its vigor. Many States 
that were once large contributors to the wheat supply do not 
now produce enough for home consumption. Wheat was for- 
tunate in finding wonderfully favorable conditions on the 
prairies of the Northwest, but it exhausts the soil rapidly ; 
ten to fifteen years continuous cropping reduces the annual 
yield per acre to scarcely paying quantities. The center of 
wheat production is moving steadily to the North. There is 
little remaining territory for it to devastate. Already it is «». 
giant with paralyzed limbs. 

Another question to be considered. Can the rice farmers 
of the United States, with their improved agricultural machin- 
ery, compete with the cheap labor of the Orient ? On the 
prairie rice lands of Louisiana and Texas, one man with a 
four-mule team can plant and harvest one hundred acres of 
rice. He will require an additional man in harvesting and 
stacking, and, of course, help for two or three days in thresh- 
ing. Well tended, his crop will net him 1000 barrels. He 
may do much better than this, and he may do worse. In 
Japan, one-third of an acre is a reasonable rice farm for a 
man. In China and India, the water buffalo is used in pre- 
paring the land, which enables one man to cultivate one-half 
an acre to two acres, depending upon the amount of additional 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



45 



help employed. With our improved machinery, there is no 
known country where a dollar will produce as many bushels 
of rice as in the United States. The indications are that 
rice production in India and Japan will decrease. These 
countries show remarkable progress in textile manufactures. 
This indicates that much land in the near future will be 
devoted to the production of fiber. Every acre devoted to 
fibre must be withdrawn from the cultivation of rice or wheat, 
for every available acre in China, India and Japan is now 
under cultivation. It should be noted that the increased 
production of rice in southern Europe, especially in Italy and 
Spain, has been considerable within the past thirty years, and 
wheat, oats and barley have yielded ground. 

The increase of the world's population in the next thirty 
years will not be less than four hundred millions, and the 
food for this immense number of people must be drawn from 
new fields. Before the expiration of that period, India, China 
and Japan will become importers of rice, and the rice of Siam 
will find market at neighboring ports. The markets of 
Europe must then be supplied by American rice, and the 
American consumption in the United States in the meantime 
will have more than doubled. 

Let us take account of stock. Suppose our product last 
year to have been tAvo hundred million pounds of cleaned 
rice (this is above the general estimate). We imported two 
hundred and five million pounds, and Porto Rico, with an 
annual demand for about seventy-five millions has been added 
to our markets. Cuba, just at our door, will soon require 
one hundred million pounds annually, and the Philippine 
demand will be about one hundred and thirty-five million 
pounds. These islands are all importers of food products, 
because they find other crops more profitable under their 
conditions. The Hawaiian islands formerly sent to this 
country about five million pounds annually, now they import 
from us large amounts. With an annual production of about 
two hundred million pounds, we have present and prospect- 
ive markets demanding seven hundred and twenty-five million 
pounds, with the probability that the demand will be more 
than doubled in thirty years and the markets of Europe 
added. 

Some will ask ''if such is the rice situation in the South 



46 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

what is the necessity of any tariff on it ? " For several 
reasons. First. The question of economic distribution has 
not yet been settled. Second. Many things are yet to be 
learned about rice in connection with machine production. 
As yet it does not take as high a polish as hand-produced 
rice. It has what is known as the chalky edge, which re- 
duces the price of the finished product fifty cents per hun- 
dred. The price of rice at present is based on fashion and 
not on food value. It is the problem of finish or shine it takes 
and not on what it is. This chalky edge is due to careless man- 
agement in producing large crops, and will soon be remedied. 
Credit is due to the United States Department of Agriculture 
for prompt and valuable assistance in overcoming some very 
serious obstacles in the way of economic rice production. 
Another thing to be learned is better cultivation, as neces- 
sary to quantity and quality of product. Third. Rice farm- 
ing on our system is in its infancy. Many farmers have 
recently commenced with small means, and are not in cir- 
cumstances yet to make a crop at the greatest profit, which 
requires ready capital. Fourth. The greatest danger from 
Oriental competition is what is known as dumpage, i. e.. after 
home consumption has been supplied the remainder is sold for 
what it will bring, regardless of cost of production. This occa- 
sional dumping of a surplus on our markets utterly demoral- 
izes home prices. In the United States, when an enormous 
crop of grain gives us a cheap surplus it is fed to cattle and 
hogs. In Oriental countries it must be sold, because they do 
not have the stock to which it can be fed, and hence is ex- 
ported at any price it will command. It is like eggs, the 
surplus is sent to market, whether the price is four cents or 
forty cents per dozen. These are the reasons for a tariff. 

I have thus far discussed rice almost entirely from its 
commercial standpoint. This is not its most substantial and 
attractive feature for the South. The paramount demand of 
the South is for some good, small grain crop, which will 
furnish food for the people and a profitable surplus for export, 
leaving upon the farm abundant and nutritious biproducts for 
the maintenance of stock, and thus utilizing the luxuriant 
pasture lands now classed as waste. Cotton and pasture do 
not co-operate. The sole biproduct of cotton is worth too 
much commercially to be generally left upon the farm The 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 47 

full resource of the average farm can never be developed with 
cotton as the main crop. Corn is a grand grain, but its 
stalk is too woody, and has lost much of its value before it is 
required as a food for cattle. The plant that meets these 
requirements is rice. It has a wide habitat, and can safely be 
planted from equator to the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude. 
South of this line most farms have a creek or river bottom, 
easily Hooded, which might be devoted to rice. One hundred 
acres of rice furnishes at least 100 tons of straw superior to 
native prairie hay, and twenty-five tons of bran and polish. 
This provides for the wintering of 100 head of stock. Some 
plan will soon be devised for the use of agricultural machin- 
ery on bottom land, as well as on the firmer soils of the 
prairie. The future of this industry is full of interest. 

The chief interest, however, in the general planting of 
rice in the South lies in the fact that it will make the South- 
ern States resourceful and independent. In the nature of 
tilings there will ever be a struggle for empire, and the sur- 
vival of the most powerful. The decisive battles of the future 
will be won, not by serried battalions with emblazoned ban- 
ners amid the rattle of the rifle and the roar of the canon, but 
by the industrious millions on the farms and in the factories. 
It is a battle to the finish for the most economic production 
and distribution of the world's food supplies. War has become 
a problem of the exchequer, based upon industrial resources. 
A bread line 1500 miles long is improvident if safe. Econ- 
omic forces are opposed to it ; especially when we have a 
cereal at home, hardy, enormously productive, better suited 
to our requirements and can be milled upon the farm for 
home use at trifling expense. 

I have heard with pleasure in this convention speeches 
and resolutions in favor of establishing cotton mills iu the 
South until every pound of cotton produced within her fair 
domain shall be transformed by the magic of spindle and loom 
into fabrics of value for the marts of trade. Did it occur to 
the eminent speakers that, however desirable such a result, 
its achievement is impossible under present conditions. Why? 
Because we now import from the North immense quantities 
of wheat, beef, pork, butter, cheese and other food products. 
The question is simply this : Is it cheaper to transport the 
food for the operatives in cotton mills from its Northern 
base to the cotton centers of the South, or to ship the cotton 



48 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

bale to the food centers of the North. Cotton ia the cheap- 
er freight. If, however, we shall become 

A GREAT FOOD PRODDCING 

people, the whole problem will be changed. General culti- 
vation and use of rice in the South will solve the factory- 
problem. 

To affirm that rice in the South can occupy the vant- 
age ground of wheat in the North, both in extent and econo- 
my of production, is equivalent to a commercial declaration 
of independence. It means that we shall feed our own people 
with a home-grown cereal, and that with bi-products we shall 
produce the pork, the beef, the butter and the cheese required 
for home consumption. It means a better grade of cattle and 
horses, better beef and stronger teams. The substitution 
of rice for corn and wheat as the principal food for Southern 
people will tend to the development of a hardier race. 
It will decrease dyspepsia, malaria, and mortgages. It 
will strengthen and fortify every line of industry and give 
us support at our weakest point, a lack of a proper ratio be- 
tween the food and the fiber products. By general consent cot- 
ton is recognized as the best material to clothe the nations, and 
iron occupies a peerless position in all mechanical and struct- 
ural works. In both these world necessities, the South has 
no successful rival. With the home production of food her 
commercial independence will be complete, and her con- 
quests in the domains of industry will be a series of brilliant 
triumphs. 

FOUNDRIES AND FACTORIES 

will come to her unsought ; her cities will broaden to meet 
the demands of an increasing commerce, and her marts of 
trade will teem with merchants from every land. 

Thus far it appears to me that this convention, from an 
industrial standpoint, has been apologetic and penitential for 
the neglect of its past opportunities with promises of reform 
and good resolutions for the future. I do not think Louisiana 
and Texas require any apology. For the past fifteen years 
they have embraced every opportunity for industrial improve- 
ment and have gone into every battle for the commercial and 
industrial advancement of their people with the flags of their 
States spiked to the staff. 

Speaking for the rice section, fifteen years since there 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACiFIC. 49 

-was scarcely a barrel of commercial rice produced in what 
is now known as the prairie rice section, which extends 400 
miles along the gulf coast, and contains some of the most fer- 
tile lauds on this continent. These lands were then valued 
at 25 cents to $1.50 per acre. There were few settle- 
ments and no rice mills. Today it is the rice-producing 
center of this continent. Unimproved lands are worth on 
an average of $12.50 per acre. There are thousands of im- 
proved farms and happy homes. Within the territory are 
twenty- seven rice mills, with a daily capacity of over 20,000 
barrels of rice. A score of young cities have sprung from the 
prairies, are clamoring for harbors and public buildings, and 
are heralding themselves as the future urban centers of the 
South. 

To illustrate the momentum of progress, it may be stated 
that one firm has sold in a retail w ay over 20,000 acres of land 
for actual settlement since last July. Within the past ninety 
days over $10,000,000 of new capital have been invested in 
the rice industries of Louisiana and Texas. I can not say we 
are exactly in line, but we shall be when the rest double- 
quick for a few years. 

A FEW RICE POINTERS. 

n. B. MILLIARD. 

In Times-Democrat, June 8th, 1899. 

I judge that there are, or soon will be, enough rice mills 
in the country to mill all the rice raised. There may be room 
for a few more, and they are certain to be built. Crowley 
has lost three, I believe it is, and has three left. Estherwood 
and Gueydan are to have a rice mill each. Here is a partial 
list; Acadia Rice Milling Company, Rayne, La., 800 barrels 
capacity every tw^enty-four hours; Mermentau (estimated), 
300 barrels; Jennings, 500 barrels; Welsh's, (estimated), 400 
barrels; Fenton. (estimated), 200 barrels; Lake Charles Rice 
Milling Company, 3000 bags ; Westlake Rice Mill, 300 sacks. 
There is another mill at Lake Charles, 500 barrels per day, 
I conjecture that it is safe to assume the aggregate capacity 
of Crowley mills at 4000 bags every twenty-four hours. I am 
not sure that I have given a complete list of rice mills in 
Southwest Louisiana. Upon reflection there is or was one at 
Opelousas. Bat I have not traversed the whole territory and 
don't pretend to accuracy. Aggregating, however, the capa- 



50 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

city of rice mills mentioned I find them to be able to dispose 
of about ] 0,000 bags of rice per day of twenty-four hours' 
run. This would only take about seven months' run to absorb 
a crop of 2,000,000 bags. In point of fact some rice mills 
are yet running, or were up to a short time ago, but most are 
closed down. 

In the very first letter I wrote on my recent trip I made 
the point that I expected to see the day coming when matters 
would be worked down to the finest point, and that would be 
for the land owners (rice raisers) to own the irrigation plant 
and the rice mill. To my utter amazement and delight I 
found that at least one demonstration was extant in Crowley 
of the practicability and its profitableness monumental. A 
number of rice raisers and owners and stockholders in irriga- 
tion plants made up their minds to build a rice mill in sheer 
self-protection, so that they could get what they deemed a 
fair price for rice. The stock was subscribed. The subscri- 
bers gave their notes for the amount of their subscriptions. 
The notes were discounted (I believe in New Orleans) and 
upon failing due were renewed. Before they were due the 
second time the mill had earned enough to pay the notes and 
a handsome surplus. Recently some shares of stock in this 
mil] were sold in the interests of a deceased shareholder: One 
hundred shares, par value f 100 per share. These shares 
brought $3,500, and the gentleman who settled the estate told 
me that the purchaser would not take ^'5,000 for the 100 
shares. For an investment that did not call for a cent of 
cash and only involved the use of credit, and that was not 
entered into with any motive of direct profit this is a remark- 
able and impressive instance. The moral is that these rice 
raisers have solved all this once vexations problem as to how 
to get fair prices for their rice. The mill buys the rice of its 
own shareholders and pays a fair price, and they set more or 
less the price for other mills. 

As a fact these country rice mills have revolutionized 
the rice business in Louisiana, so far as markets for sale, 
localities in milling, markets for the cleaned rice, modes of 
payment, etc., are concerned. Everybody knows that little 
or no rough rice now comes to New Orleans except such as is 
bought by the ricemill man or dealer here. Formerly it all 
came here, or so nearly so as to be not worth consideration. 
The rice business in the country is done on a cash basis. In 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 51 

New Orleans not (no need to explain this to the well-inform- 
ed). Next, 90 per cent of the head rice, or finished product, 
goes West — mainly to grocery trade — Chicago, St. Louis, 
Knnsas City, Los Angeles, Cal., and other Western cities. 
Tliis is all of a few late years, or since the fairy-developed 
result of rice mills in the country. No need to comment on 
this revolution. 

It is another interesting thing to know how the demand 
for rice polish is growing in Europe. You could see at some 
of the large mills (even as late as two or three weeks ago) 
quite a number of cars loading with this polish. I suppose 
the day will come when it will be billed through from the 
mill. . Now it is shipped to New Orleans, but goes to Europe 
in the same packages. It is put up at the country mills in 
double bags. Antwerp is a leading consumer or market. 
Liverpool takes a great deal of it. In Belgium it is bolted. 
The flour is made into bread, and the "offals" or residuum 
makes stock feed. Indeed, it sells very readily in this coun- 
try for stock feed. Mr. Daboval of the Rayuo rice mills, told 
me that he had letters of inquiry from Hamburg and else- 
where about rice polish. 

In my mind I have evolved a good deal what could be 
done in the way of creating new uses for rice. I am told by 
a rice miller that there is 46 per cent of starch in rice polish 
or flour. And it is suggested that it would pay better to 
make starch of it than to sell it as polish. If this be so the 
rice millers ought to have a starch factory at Crowley or 
Lake Charles or some "live town." In fact, rice raisers and 
rice millers ought to set their heads to work to build up a 
larger demand for rice. A starch factory would be an im- 
pressive addendum to Southern progress in Southwest Louisi- 
ana. Rice raising, as large as it has grown to be, is destined 
to be much larger. Its immense profits are almost staggering. 
I have a number of thoroughly authentic figures to illustrate 
its profitableness, but I need not give them here. What is 
the latest and greatest feature about rice-raising is that 
capital is creeping out of its timidity, and is touching irriga- 
tion plants 60 firmly and persistently that it looks as though 
rich men will be eagerly hunting them soon as a favorite in- 
vestment. The future of rice-raising is portentous with great 
auguries for Southwest Louisiana. I shall not be surprised 
to find eligible rice land there held at .^50 per acre and above 
in five years or less time. 



52 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



RICE IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

One of the most important food products of the archi- 
pelago is rice. This grain forms the staple food, not only of 
the native population, but also of the numerous Chinese in- 
habitants. Owing to its general use, a scarcity of rice 
always causes great hardship to the people of the islands. 

The varieties of rice grown in the Philippines number 
more than one hundred, distinguished by the size, color and 
flavor of their grains. The best of these is the Mismis, a 
rice with a white, almost transparent grain of agreeable odor 
and flavor. There is also a variety, called Malagquit that 
has an unusually glutinous quality, and is therefore muck 
used in the manufacture of cakes and pastry. Certain 
kinds of Philippine rice, the Quinamalig among others, ma- 
ture very early, producing a crop within three months of 
planting. It thus happens that by planting alternately, an 
early and a late variety, two crops can be obtained in one 
year. 

The ordinary price of rice in the husk, called by the 
Philippines, Palay, is about 60 to 65 cents per bushel, while 
that of shelled rice is about 90 cents to |1 per bushel. 

The annual production of rice in the Philippines aver- 
ages about 36,000,000 bushels. This amount, even when 
supplepiented by maize, mongo (a kind of lentil), sweet 
potatoes, bananas and other edible fruits and tubers, is far 
below the actual food requirements of the population. It 
seems singular that an almost exclusively agricultural coun- 
try should not produce enough food for the consumption of 
its own inhabitants, but such is at present the case as re- 
gards the Philippines. In order to supply the home de- 
mand it has been the custom to draw upon the product of 
other rice-growing countries. The French colony of Cochin- 
China, on account of its proximity to the islands, is the 
principal source of supply. In some years the quantity of 
rice imported into Manila, from Saigon, has exceeded 3,200,- 
000 bushels, the value reaching nearly $2,000,000. The 
Philippine trade is therefore a source of large income to the 
rice planters of Cochin-China. — Ficayime. 




1 




SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 
ANOTHER WITNESS. 

ALL TALK LIKE THIS AFTER THEY VISIT SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA. 

The New Orleans Picayune has this to say " F. H. 
Thompson, of New York, a representative of one of the larg- 
est machinery establishments of the eastern metropolis, who 
met Capt. C. A. Lowry, of Lowry, La , and C. A. Spencer, of 
Jennings, at the Cosmopolitan Hotel last week, and who 
went out to the rice country with them to see about putting 
in some extensive irrigating machinery, returned from the 
Lake Authur country yesterday and put up at the Cosmopoli- 
tan." 

"A great country," he declared to the lobby rounder. 
*'A great country. Captain Lowry has as fine a place as I 
ever saw. It is on the Mermentau river, at the intersection of 
three parishes, and set down in the midst of a mammoth 
grove of live oaks. His 7,000 acres of rice land lap over on 
the parishes of Vermilion, Calcasieu and Cameron. It is 
near Lake Arthur, one of the most beautiful bodies of water I 
ever saw. When he gets his plant in he will have 15,000 
acres of rice land under his pumps, and I verily believe it 
will be the finest rice plantation in southwest Louisiana." 

Mr. Thompson went over to Captain Lowry's place to 
conduct some tests in the efficiency of engines and machin- 
ery in order to get at the horse-power needed, etc. Mr. Low- 
ry had a lot of new machinery to put in last year, but it 
proved to be of too light capacity for the big tracts of land to 
be irrigated, and the power will be increased. 



A BIG FARM. 

A SIGNAL REPRESENTATIVE VISITS THE ABBOTT BROS. 1,500 ACRE RICE 

PLANTATION. 

A representative of the Signal made a trip to the Abbott 
Brothers farm northwest of Crowley Wednesday, and was 
well repaid for the trip by what was seen. There is probably 
no better rice farm or plantation in the country than the 
Abbott Brothers. They are farming 1,500 acres this year, 
and already have as fine a stand of rice as one could wish to 
see. Something like 150 men are employed about the place. 
The Abbott Brothers have their own pumping plant and flood 
their land through a canal built and owned by themselves. 




'^ 



56 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

The. pumping plant was started May 15. But two of the 
pumps were running when the writer saw the place, but 
these two throw out an immense amount of water, and the 
long flume which runs out to the canal was almost full to the 
top. 

It is a big thing when one stops to think of it. Fifteen 
hundred acres of land, at a very modest estimate, will 
produce ten bags of rough rice to the acre. It is generally 
estimated that there are four bushels of rice to the bag. 
This would make 60,000 bushels of rice, and if a good 
season is had, it will come nearer 70,000 bushels. It takes 
money to seed all this land, to keep it in shape, supply water 
and harvest the crop, and the amount paid out for labor and 
supplies reaches a big figure. It will be worth the time of 
anyone to drive out and see this big plantation. 

WORK ON THE BIG RICE FARfl. 

LOUISIANA SYNDICATE LOSING NO TIME ON ITS HARRIS COUNTY 

ENTERPRISE. 

Galveston, Tex,, May 5. — It was announced last week 
that W. E. Jones, son of the late M. T. Jones, of Houston, 
has leased 4,000 acres of laud near Deepwater to a Louisiana 
syndicate comdosed of Messrs. Bel. Kaufman and Viterbo 
Bros., of Lake Charles, whose purpose it was to sink 50 
eight-inch artesian wells, and put the entire tract into rice. 

This morning J. Wharton Terry and Major R. B. Baer 
informed a reporter that work on this big undertaking had 
already begun. 

"The derricks are up, the engines are at work and they 
are already boring," said Major Baer. "There is an 
enormous amount of pipe on the ground. Teams are out 
with plows and rollers and they are cutting out cotton stalks. 
The rice seeders are running and the work is in full blast. 
The wells that are being sunk now are about a quarter of 
a mile north of the depot." 

Major Baer was asked if he thought the syndicate 
would have any trouble getting water. 

"No," he replied. "Even if they do not get as much 
water as they expect, they will not have far to go to tap the 
bayou. With a pumping station there they could get all 
they want." 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 57 

SULPHUR CANAL COMPLETED. 

SEVERAL THOUSAND ACRES OF RICE "WILL BE SURE OF WATER. 

The work on the irrigating canal at Sulphur under the 
direction of S. A. Robinson ias been completed. 

The successful solution of this project means much for 
Lake Charles and the western part of the parish. The water 
is pumped from the west of the Calcassieu. The main 
canal extends south and crosses the S. P. tracks near Sul- 
phur. North of the track is a small prairie, which lies in a 
pocket of the woods. The canal runs through this land, and 
much of it that was uncultivated last year is now green with 
growing rice. 

On the South side of the Southern Pacific track is the 
large plantation belonging to Fred Lock. On this place are 
nearly 1,800 acres which are planted in rice. It is due to 
Mr. Lock's push and energy that the canal was built. 

When it is known that there are at least 3,000 acres 
on the north side of the track available for rice it can be 
seen how large the plant really is. The location and 
general surroundings are among the best to be found any- 
where. The lift is not great and there is water in abundance. 

The rice, when ready for market, can be loaded on 
barges at the river, or on the cars at Sulphur, and the 
haul to the other points is not great. 

The products from the farms and plantations tributary 
to the canal will naturally gravitate to Lake Charles, and the 
mills here will profit by them. 



QOVERNHENT RICE. 

The U. S. department of agriculture has shipped to this 
city 2500 pounds of Japanese rice, which has been donated 
to planters whose lands are tributary to the Lake canal. 

The planters have agreed to plant the rice under certain 
conditions of fertilization, soil and irrigation. The govern- 
ment reserves the privilege of buying all the product at $3 a 
bag. 

A number of rice growers have taken quantities of this 
imported rice and next season there will no doubt be much of 
this seed planted here. The government officials are taking 
a deep interest in the rice growing in this country. When 
the crop is growing it is expected that some of the officials 
from Washington will visit this part of the country. 



58 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

DEEP WELLS. 

THE ONE PUT DOWN AT JENNINGS PRONOUNCED A SUCCESS. ' 

The Jennings Times has the following to say of the 
deep well put down there last summer : 

Great interest was manifest last summer in the deep 
well put down on the farm of Dr. G. W. Remage, uod the 
Times takes pleasure in publishing the results, which were 
highly satisfactory, even though the well was not finished 
until after the irrigating season was well advanced. Eighty- 
five acres of rice was planted on the farm. Of this amount, 
40 acres was very late and is only partly harvested yet. The 
bulk of the crop has been threshed and will yield 600 sacks. 
Over $1,000 worth of rice has already been sold and there is 
iully 81,000 worth on hand. Dr. Remage is well satisfied 
with the results, and he may well be, for without the deep 
well the 85 acres of rice would not have yielded a sack of 
grain. 

DEEP WELL TEST. 

A. Brecher made a test to-day of the two 6-inch deep 
wells recently sunk on S. L. Gary & Sons' land in the west 
part of town, and a crowd of people went out to see the sight. 
The two wells are connected with a T joint, the Van Wei 
pump being set half way between the two. The pump has 
6-inch suction and 5-inch discharge, and is driven with ease 
by a 6 h. p. engine. Speeded to 600 revolutions per minute, 
the pump throws a strong stream of clear water, estimated 
at between 1,200 and 1,400 gallons per minute. With an 
elbow attached at the discharge, the stream of water was 
thrown out to a distance of 12 feet, the stream running away 
6 inches deep, 3 feet wide, and moving at the rate of 8 miles 
per hour. Pump men and farmers who were present ex- 
pressed the belief that these two wells will furnish water 
sufficient to properly irrigate 200 acres of rice. This set of 
deep wells is certainly a success. After noon the elbow of 
the pump was removed and the water shot straight up 8 feet. 
Owing to the rain the belt slipped and normal speed could 
not be attained. It was freely admitted that with a* dry belt 
the water would be shot up at least 12 feet. — Jennings 
Times. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 5^ 

WELLS. 

We are often asked : " What do you think of wells for 
flooding rice and for general irrigation ? " 

The subject is an old one, hut here in the prairie re- 
gion of Southwest Louisiana the general conditions are new. 
Canals for flooding have proved successful, and so far as we 
can see, wells will be a still greater success. There have 
been serious difficulties to overcome, but as we are assured, 
success has been reached. The wells can be dug, water in 
great quantities is reached, a constant stream is sure and 
a system of wells can be put down, say 10 to 20 feet apart 
and united at the top for one pump and engine. These 
plants can be located at the highest prairie at less cost than 
grubbing timber, dredging and building canals from river, 
lake or bayou to the dividing ridge. The lift is less from 
wells than from rivers and may be reduced to zero by best 
pumping devices. Contracting parties are on the ground 
offering to put in wells and pumps with guarantee of plenty 
of water in one week. A. Barber, of Jennings, has an eight- 
inch flowing well put in by the Andrews Well Co., of New 
Orleans, from which he pumps a six-inch stream constantly 
with a second-hand 10-horse power engine. 

We estimate that five 8-inch wells, a 16-inch pump, 
50-horse power engine and 75-horse power boiler will cost 
say $4,000, Six percent, equals $240. This can be run 60 
days at about $20.00 a day. 20 multiplied by 60 equals 
1200, and interest $240, equals $1,440, and will flood 1000 
acres or $1.44 per acre. 

Larger plants would give much better results. Ditches 
to carry the water would be comparatively inexpensive. 
Evaporation, generally one-fourth inch per day, is less with 
cool water and possibly cooler water may increase the yield 
or may improve the quality of rice. 

Flooding any crop improves the soil. Rice growing 
never injures the land. Rice is the most nutritious of all 
the cereals. Three quarters of the world lives on rice al- 
most entirely. So that besides our home market requiring 
almost ten million dollars to fill, we have the great hungry 
world for a market, and we are well assured that we can 
not be beaten by cheap labor or low prices. 

We are assured that from Crowlev west to Iowa water 



6o 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



is iu strata and not confined to veins as is the case north and 
west of this territory, and here we can grow everything that 
requires water and can sell it in the best markets as "WELL" 
watered stock. 

The Andrews Well Co., New Orleans, have put in sixty 
8-inch wells here in Southwest Louisiana, A. Brechner, sixty- 
five 6-inch, J. H. Ritter & Co. the same, all ready to work 
and guarantee plenty of water in the prairie region. — S. L. 
Caryy in The Record. 




L, fcrfWlHSS^ 




1-LoW FKOM IvVo u-liicli wtLl..i :j,^ h/M\M .Jt- .1. L. GARY, JENNINGS, LA. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 6l 

THE VALUE OF WELLS. 

WHAT A SIX-INCH WELL AND 120 ACRES WILL PRODUCE. 



[Written Expressly for Jennings Times by S. L. Cary.] 

In the childhood of the old century (just passed away) 
a famous writer, one Horace Greeley, of agricultural memory, 
wrote a famous book entitled " Five Acres Enough." Another 
writer, after a hard, practical trial, wrote a humorous article 
entitled " Five Acres Too Much," in which he seemed to have 
the better of the man who said, " Go West, young man, and 
grow up with the country." And now, in the early infancy 
of the twentieth century, we are telling young and old to go 
south and get a farm in the rice belt, and a very common 
question is, "What can be done with 120 acres of rice land 
to support a family and a home ? 

The 120 acres cost $20 per acre ; buildings and fencing, 
1600 ; one 6-inch deep well, 180 feet, $360 ; 5-inch pump, 
$125, making a permanent investment of $3,485, at 6 per 
cent, $209.10 ; taxes, $20 ; seed, $125 ; and sacks, $70; 
$600 for fuel and engineers for pumping would represent the 
cash outlay, to which must be added the use of machinery 
and labor to put in, care for, harvest, thresh and market the 
crop. 

Now, what can be reasonably expected from a rice crop 
of 120 acres, well put in w4th good clean seed and plenty of 
water at the proper time ? There should be harvested in 
good condition at least ten sacks per acre of good grade clean 
rice, making 1200 sacks, which for the past 18 years has 
averaged $3,50 per sack — say $3 per sack ; from this deduct 
$1024 for interest, seed, taxes, fuel, engineers, sacks and 
twine, leaving for labor and profit $2576 ; from this deduct 
for plowing, f 120 ; seeding, $60 ; watching levees, $50.; 
harvesting, $250 ; threshing, $300; marketing, $120, making 
a total for labor of $1000, leaving $1576 to the profit side of 
the account, being over 40 per cent on the permanent capital 
invested, which, it land is worth all it pays, 5 per cent, will 
be 5 per cent upon $250 per acre. 

.Such a home, with this climate and the most favorable 
conditions, would not be on sale. Homes can be made in the 
rice belt more attractive and profitable than elsewhere, more 
cheaply, easily and in Jess time. Nature is more generous j 




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ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 63 

humanity is at its best. It is the last best work of the 
great Creator of all things, and to be a land-owner, a free- 
holder, with such surroundings, is a position to be proud of ; 
and such is the position of hundreds of families in the rice 
belt at the beginning of the twentieth century, to be followed 
by thousands more. 



MORE ABOUT WELLS. 



WHAT AN EIGHT-INCH WELL AND 200 ACRES WILL PRODUCE. 

[Written expressly for Jennings Times by S. L. Cary.] 

In a former letter I told of a few things made easy to 
the farmer in the rice belt by the help of a 6-inch irrigation 
well. In this letter the 8-inch well, which is more popular, 
will be described. 

First, select your farm of about 200 acres of level, beau- 
tiful prairie land, with a stiff clay soil, as near to a station 
on the S. P. as possible. "A good location is a fortune of 
itself." Then find an expert Well man ; he must go through 
a layer of clay and quicksand alternately till at 150 to 200 
feet he reaches gravel (coarse sand); in this he puts a 
screening casing 40 to 60 feet. The length of screen makes 
the capacity of the well. Forty feet gives a capacity for 
flooding 200 acres. When this is in the water rises to or 
near th'e surface. Suction pumps require submerging ]ust 
below water level, or an injector on the engine. One 6-inch 
centrifugal suction pump and a 20 h. p. stationary steam 
eno-ine will do the work. Levees are so easily made that the 
tenant on new land makes them free. 

Cost of such land is now |20 per acre, |2000; for fenc- 
ing and buildings, $1200 ; for pumping plant, well, $600 ; 
pump, $150 ; engine, $600; permanent investment, $4550, 
at 6 per cent, net, $273 ; taxes, $27 ; |300a charge annually 
u{)on the crop ; then water, seed, plowing, seeding, caring 
for, harvesting, threshing, sacking and marketing. In fact, 
all expenses can be included in $10 per acre, $2000. The 
present average crop is placed at 10 barrels per acre, 2000 
barrels ; an average price $3, 2000, twice three, $6000, less 
interest, taxes and expense of crop ; $6000, less $2300, 
$3700 profit on one season's crop on 200 acres. 




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ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 61; 

These figures have beeu realized by hundreds of farmers 
in Southwest Louisiana the past year. Do you realize it? 
And what do you think of it? Would it be good to take as 
a medicine? I assure you there's not a sick man among the 
lot. As my friend, John Watt, said years ago : " Any man 
w^ho will invest in Southwest Louisiana, and keep it, will 
wear diamonds. 

Don't forget that conditions have changed and that our 
people change conditions. No farmers in the States have as 
much control of the elements that make a successful crop as 
those in the rice belt. 

A TEN INCH WELL. 



WHAT IT WILL ACCOMPLISH IN IRRIGATING RICE. OUR EXPERIMENTS 
ON A PAYING BASIS. 

Prosperity comes from the ground you may buy and sell 
(labor or play). Your real wealth comes from real estate. 
The condition of the farmer governs all, and the prosperity 
of the farmer is made by the length of his growing season, 
the amount and value he grows per acre, and the control 
he has of the elements that make his crop. The greatest 
of these is water. Soil, moisture and heat are the three 
great necessities for successful agriculture. 

These conditions are more nearly perfect in the rice belt 
than in any other part of the union. 

After writing about the six and eight inch wells I will 
conclude with the ten and twelve, as the larger wells seem to 
be growing in favor. They cost a little more, but the cost 
of a successful well is a mere trifle compared with the benefits 
derived. It's only the failures that cost, and there have been 
very few failures, and those were with the makers and not 
with the water supply, which seems to be unlimited. 

The cost of a ten-inch well is, say, $3.50 a foot, the usual 
average depth being 200 feet, and its capacity is about 300 
acres. The cost of the well would be $700; the pump, $250 ; 
the engine and boiler, $1000, making a total of $1950 for the 
plant. The land would cost $6000, seed rice $400, water 
$1000. The seed and water would therefore cost $1400, 
and adding the interest on the cost of land and plant, $8000, 
at six per cent, amounting to $480, making the cost to the 
owner $1880, which entitles him to one-half the crop, the 
renter getting the other half. 



66 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Au average crop under the present outlook is ten barrels 
to the acre and the average price for good rice is $3.00 per 
barrel. The crop of 3000 barrels would therefore yield 
$9,000, one-half of which would be $4,500. After deducting 
the cost from this amount there would remain $2,620, or 
enough to support a family in good style in the rice belt. 

These wells so far have been put down about 20 feet 
apart, then united just below water level, making a crib deep 
enough to submerge the pump to save priming. Then a 
stationary or other engine completes the outfit. The dis- 
tance apart of these wells is experimental as yet. Three 
8-inch, wells, 20 feet apart, when tested on Gary & Son's 
plant, gave the following result : Pumping from end well low- 
ered the one 20 feet away J feet, and the one 40 feet away 
only 5 feet. Another experiment is uniting the wells. Would 
it be better to have a pump for each well, and the best way to 
connect them to the engine ? And another very important 
experiment is the kind of pump to use. 

The experimental stage has progressed to a paying basis, 
which makes the future exceedingly interesting. Southwest 
Louisiana will be honeycombed with wells. Those boring for 
water will strike oil, and those boring for oil will strike 
water, and yet some say there is no such thing as luck. We 
find that all well owners are lucky, for any man owning a 
home is in great luck, and wells make the best homes, schools, 
society, churches, roads, markets, in fact all modern improve- 
ments are made by a hardy, home-making, home-loving yeo- 
manry. The hope of the world, the highest order in heaven. 
The best prices for lands and the best general condition, will 
be in the " well " districts. 

Prices for land so far have been so low as to ruin the 
reputation of any country, and made it very dangerous to 
the good name of anyone telling the truth about crops, climate 
and general conditions, to which the price of land gave the 
lie. When the price corresponds with the advantages, then 
sales will be better, prices higher and more satisfactory. 

The problem of cheap fuel has been solved as satisfac- 
torily by the oil wells of Beaumont, Texas, as the water 
supply by the digging of wells. The old saying, " When it 
rains it pours," or "To him that hath shall be given,'' is 
emphatically true of the rice belt. It's a lucky belt. 



68 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

riEXICAN EVER-BEARING STRAWBERRIES 

Three years ago A. C. Brainard, of Jennings, La., intro- 
duced the Mexican Ever-bearing Strawberry. They are a 
native of Mexico and grow very large. He says : "I have 
ten other varieties, but the Mexican stands at the head for 
size, quality, quantity, and every other feature that goes to 
make up a first- class berry, both for home use and as 
a shipper. They grow very deep, therefore will stand a 
long continued drought." Mr. Brainard says, "I am 
confident that 10,000 quarts can be raised on one acre of 
land." 

The Jennings Times has the following to say of them : 
"A. C. Brainard brought the TIMES several samples of 
Mexican Everbearing Strawberries, a new variety intro- 
duced by him. They are a large berry, of a tart flavor. 
The strong point is their keeping quality. This fruit, unlike 
the usual strawberry, begins to ripen at the^ tip. When 
half ripe the berries were picked and laid away. The 
samples had been picked 123 hours and were ripe and 
sound. Mr. Brainard claims that they can be shipped to 
New York and we see no reason why the claim is not 
entirely reasonable. As a shipper they will be an especially 
valuable shipper." 



A PARADISE FOR THE IMMIGRANT. 

This Article was Written by Request of the City Editor of the New 
Orleans Picayune, for its Trade, September, ist, 1898, 
By S, L. Cary. 

Immigration, as related to Louisiana, is a very broad and 
popular subject. A few years ago an ingenious writer in the 
popular newspaper, Alexandria Town Talk, took the following 
unpopular view of a popular question: *'Why is it that we, a 
prosperous people, with the best country on earth, are not 
satisfied and are striving to bring in here among us people we 
know nothing about, and care less, and for what? To raise 
more cotton? What for? To raise more corn? What for? 
To make a garden of our luxuriant clover fields? For what? 
To enrich us? Oh, no; people who have the energy to make 
fortunes, generally make them for themselves and not for 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 69 

others. * * * We have a good thing ; for the Lord's sake 
let us keep it. If a few hundred acres are idle it's the owners' 
fault and nobody's business. There are too many acres now 
to the plow. We need more hogs (and coco will raise them), 
we need horses and cattle, and above all we need contentment 
enough to go slow and hold onto our lands. 

*' Instead of having Dutch, Irish, and the devil knows 
what, for too close a neighbor, I for one, would rather have 
the clover field, the brook .of trout, the wooded hills, with 
luxuriant grass, and my dear good neighbor over yonder, who 
probably still carries the stone in one end of the sack, but who 
is honest and a true, tried friend. He is better than forty 
Dutch, who care for nothing but themselves and theirs." 

This is a very pleasant picture, well painted, well finish- 
ed, and all said that can be said upon that side of the question. 
But is it true; does it represent the interest of the race? 
Does it represent the best interest of the people of the great 
state of Louisiana? We have an object lesson in the great 
Northwest. Look at the once great American desert. See 
its teeming millions. See the great highways of commerce, 
its mighty cities, its business blocks, its palatial homes, its 
wonderful system of education, its million churches, its open 
mines of silver, gold, iron, coal and copper, the most valuable 
on earth. Its fields of grain can be fed the world. Its 
people from all lands excel them all. Then turn to a more 
pleasing picture to a Louisianian, Southwest Louisiana. A 
field adjacent to our friend, of Rapides. Fifteen years ago it 
would have answered for a background for our friend's 
beautiful picture. Millions of acres of prairie and timber in 
beautiful proximity (as nature adorned). To-day, after an 
immigration of fully 15,000 people from this same Northwest, 
what a picture of home, of fertile-fields, of growing cities, of 
smiling villages, of model farmhouses, of active business, no 
idle men or tramps around our homes. But the fair prairies, 
made fairer still by the skilled hand of labor, are made to 
yield to their happy owners millions of wealth to supply their 
ever-returning wants. Men of Louisiana. Which picture 
suits you best? Civilization, prosperity, progress, come as 
handmaids of immigration, in its immediate wake are advanc- 
ing prices and general prosperity. Is it desirable? Not 
always. It depends very largely upon the character of the 
people brought in. The vicious criminal classes are worsQ 



70 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

than useless. Families of moderate means, of good character, 
active and intelligent, are the best. Honest people willing to 
work (with or without means), are very desirable. Specula- 
tors we do not want. In a new country of undeveloped, cheap 
lands, we fear the man with a pocketful of money. Capital 
is needed to develop, but it comes best as in Southwest Louis- 
iana; it comes from the the proceeds of our own industries. 

In all frankness we want the best farmers of the North. 
We have succeeded remarkably well with such as we could 
get, such, often, who had made failures, who had experiment- 
ed too long with a long winter. We shall not go to Europe 
or to Africa, and will find them at home as soon as they learn 
the facts as they exist. Going South we are no longer com- 
petitors, but consumers, sending North our barrels of sugar 
and rice for barrels of pork and flour. It's a relief to the 
labor market of the North. 

What have we to offer to would-be immigrants? Health,, 
good climate, cheap lands, prairie and timber, sure and most 
valuable products, a home market for our principal crops and 
a seaboard market for all. Sixty inches of rainfall and sixty 
irrigating canals. A long growing season. Always remem- 
ber that the largest factor in your prosperity is the length ot 
your growing season. Each degree south adds ten days to 
the season, and a greater variety of crops. 

But there are two that have a home market taking 
$150,000,000 to fill. In other words we send nearly that 
amount to Europe and Asia for sugar and rice, selling our 
wheat, corn, oats and cotton at a small price, to exchange for 
articles of an inferior quality, that could be grown in Louisi- 
ana at four times the profit and of superior quality. Time 
for social and literary pursuit. We can earn more money 
in the same time with less expense to live, have more time 
for pleasure. Railroads are best adapted to carry on this 
business, and, very fortunately, are most directly benefited, 
I am greatly surprised that they do not push the business to 
the very front. 

There is a great amount of prejudice and ignorance of 
the South. Continual advertising such as the World's Fair 
and the present great trans-Mississippi Exposition affords are 
exceedingly beneficial and will largely increase immigration 
south. At Omaha there is in the Louisiana exhibit of red 
cypress (the best on the ground) sections of trees and moss. 



72 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

from them. Doors finished equal to veneering, fire-place and 
mantel finishings in three patterns of latest designs and most 
exquisite finish, a table and a large section of a parlor, in 
cypress (labor on this cost $400 over material), a plank 42 
inches wide, 2| inches thick and 12 feet long, beautifully 
done in oil and varnish. Mr. Chas. McDowell, Secretary of 
the Cypress Lumber Association, in charge, has it well 
arranged to attract attention. For fifteen years the Southern 
Pacific Company have had an agent in the Northwest, the 
very best field to select immigrants from, and with such suc- 
cess that southwest Louisiana, along its line, has 15,000 
northern people capturing the great industry, using 4,000 
twine-binding harvesters, and all machinery " up-to-date," 
each harvester doing the work of forty men with the old 
sickle. 

The Southern Pacific Company has an exhibit of the 
leading products of the state, sugar cane, rice, fruits, salt, 
sulphur and ornamental trees (by kindness of Prof. W, C. 
Stubbs) . This makes a good foundation for the distribution 
of literature that has already done much for the state- — 
Louisiana will, at this exhibition, be the best advertised state 
in the Union. She has the richest soil, the most valuable 
products, the best all-around climate, the best markets, good 
people, and, better than any other state, "double irrigation." 
Only let the Northwest know and we will get our full share. 
Th^re is a vast field to work and a great amount to do. 

Farmers are the gods of this world; "they feed and 
clothe us all." We would all go to heaven in a month if the 
farmer should go on a strike. It is very wonderful what 
nature has done for southern Louisiana (level clay soil) clay 
sub-soil, plenty of rivers and lakes, always full of fresh waters, 
sky and earth full also. All rivers and lakes are skirted with 
heavy timber, just where wanted, by pumping plant or for 
market. And a prairie of such rare beauty and utility, noth- 
ing on the surface to mar the picture, naught but a waving 
expanse of green grass and many colored flowers, no wreck 
of tree, no stone, no woodman's ax nor grubbing hoe to pre- 
pare these most fertile lands for the farmer's use. All the 
conditions seem to have been carefully met so as to return to 
man the greatest possible benefit with the Least labor; no 
waiting for the sod to rot, no water to escape through leaking 
Bands. The. very winds seem tempered to the shorn lamb,. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 73 

«,nd, with a very reasonable amount of labor, all our wants 
are well supplied. 

Longfellow has well-placed words of welcome on our 
lips: 

" Welcome once more to a home, better, perchance, than the old one. 

Here no hungry winter congeals the blood like the river. 

Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the farmer ; 

Smoothly the plow-share runs through the soil as a keel through the water. 

All the year round the orange groves are in blossom , 

And the grass grows more in a single night than a whole Canadian summer. 

Here, too, numberless herds run wild and unclaimed on the prairies ; 

Here, too, land may be had for the asking, and forests of timber. 

Beautiful is the land with its prairies and forests of fruit trees. 

Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of heavens bending above 

and resting its dome on the walls of the forest. 
They who dwell there have named it the Eden of Louisiana." 



TRUCK FARMING. 

Truck farming according to the census of 1890, is most 
remunerating, paying an average of $150 per acre, and over 
$250 for every man, woman and child employed in the busi- 
ness. The very early and late season, without frost, give to 
our products a peculiar value. For instance, it costs no more 
to grow a strawberry in February that sells at fifty cents to 
one dollar a quart, than it does to grow strawberries iu June 
that sell at five to ten cents per quart. Climate is of great 
value, but costs you nothing, but its operations are often very 
expensive or the reverse. Truck raised South has good keep- 
ing qualities, can be shipped long distances. One hundred 
miles nearer the Gulf of Mexico may give you thirty days 
earlier products, while the time for transportation will be 
only a matter of two or three hours. We want expert truck- 
men by the hundred at all our villages, that cars may be 
loaded at any one point. The advantages of truck farming 
over general farming are very many. It requires less land ; 
it is much easier to get help, and you do not need to keep 
laborers when not needed. You need not burden your wife 



74 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

with the care of help. Your location is iu or near town. 
Schools, churches, lectures, and the circus, doctors, stores,, 
shops, are all near by. Your property, kept in order, is al- 
ways attractive and salable. Your business is surer than the 
fruit grower's, better than the farmer's, as good as the bank. 

LOUISIANA WEATHER SERVICE. 
SOUTH LOUISIANA. 

Spring has a normal mean temperature ranging between 
66° in west and north portions, to nearly 70° in southeast 
portion; the highest temperature ranges between 93° in 
southeast portion to 98° in west-central portion, the lowest on 
record ranges between 20° in west-central portion to 30° in 
southeast portion, and 35° along the east Gulf coast. The 
sunshine averages 64 per cent. The rainfall averages between 
9 and 14 inches, the former in southwest portion, and latter 
in the extreme north portion, with the east portion having a 
uniform fall of 12 inches. 

Summer has a normal mean temperature of 80°, being 79° 
in west portion, and 81° in extreme east portion. The high- 
est temperatures on record range between 97° in southeast 
portion and 101° in west portion ; the lowest ranges between 
50° in west portion to 58° in southeast portion. The sunshine 
averages 53 per cent, in east portion and 47 to 50 per cent, 
in west portion. The rainfall varies between 16 inches in 
eastern half to less than 19 inches in western half. 

Autumn has a normal mean temperature between 65° and 
70°, the former in west portion, and latter in southeast por- 
tion. The highest temperatures on record range between 94° 
and 98°; the lowest between 22° and 25°. The sunshine 
averages 55 per cent, and is greatest in southeast portion. 
The rainfall averages from 10 to 13 inches. 

Winter has an average temperature of 55°, being 54° in 
west and north portions and 56° in southeast portion. The 
highest temperature on record ranges between 82° and 88°, 
the latter in west portion; the lowest, between 10° and 15°; 
the former in, west and north portions. The sunshine gives 
a general average of 47 per cent. The rainfall ranges from 12 
to less than 16 inches ; the latter in northeast portion, and 
former in southwest. 

ADVANTAGES OF CLIMATE. 

In order to provoke discussion and diffuse knowledge of the 





^ 



1 



76 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISUNA 

utmost importance to man, I give a few suggestions derived 
mainly from experience. My first suggestion is that extremes 
are injurious to the best interests of man. The life of man, 
beast or vegetable is dwarfed, shattered or killed outright by 
our cold climate, and is injured to some extent by torrid heat, 
the exceptions being the superior development of vegetable 
and animal life in the tropics. In the struggle for life, na- 
ture's greatest effort, her largest expenditure of force, is to " 
counteract the vicissitudes of climate. Then it follows, the 
polar region is most unfitted for the abode of man and the 
temperate zones most favorable to life and its proper develop- 
ment. 

Now, man having power of choice and means of transpor- 
tation should fairly consider these conditions and place him- 
self where he will receive most benefit from climate, seeing 
that the climatic condition cannot be changed, but man's con- 
dition may be. Then comes the question what part of the 
temperate zone is the most favorable; and for present pur- 
poses let us say the United States. 

Then I say, (other things being equal), where you can 
have most of life's blessings, with the least expenditure of 
labor; also where we require least protection from extremes, 
and where most of the necessities and comforts of life can be 
produced on the spot; where we can raise the greatest variety 
and where we have best markets and means of exchange. 

Where have we the most even climate and the cheapest 
protection against extremes? I answer, confidently, the coast 
line of the Gulf of Mexico. One season merges almost im- 
perceptibly into another; extreme heat and cold, about 70°, 
and climatic changes very gradual, about 20°, covers the 
changes of the twenty-four hours, and 5° to 10° from month 
to month. Corn can be planted from February to July, and 
gardens made from January to November, and fuel and lum- 
ber had at nominal prices; wool and cotton at lowest price; 
stocks of all kinds roam over the prairies at will and are 
never fed by the hand of man. 

The cereals here require same labor as further north, but 
at a more seasonable time. Fall-sown crops mature and are 
harvested in May, while sugar, cotton, hay and rice are har- 
vested from August to January. There is little to do during 
the heated term; and fruits, delicious fruits, luxuries of •life, 
necessities of health, solace our leisure hours. Where are our 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC ^^ 

orchards to-day? Follow the coast line, and you will see 
nearly all. The peach king of tho world, Parnell, of Georgia; 
and for pears, Thomasville, of it anie State ; for tropical and 
semi-tropical fruits the coast lii e alone, while figs, apricots, 
prunes, olives, grapes, pomegranates and berries are in abun- 
dance. Go to the coast for fish, oysters, game, sugar, rice, 
cotton, tobacco, corn and textile fabrics. 

Here flourish walnuts, pecans, almonds and most nut- 
bearing trees. It's eminently a tree bearing country — a 
prairie only by accident. 

But, says the Northern man, living comes too easy ; you 
will loose energy, your vigor will abate, and ignorance and 
indolence will be your inheritance. Does it follow, or is it 
not a fact that success induces energy, and failure brings de- 
spondency and sloth? When my efforts are successful, will 
I not renew them? When I plant a successful orchard, will 
I not enlarge it? 

The results of unfavorable conditions are often mistaken 
for results of climate (slavery for instance). That the very 
highest degree of success has been attained in a similar cli- 
mate, all will admit. (I refer to Greece and Rome.) The 
successful raising of fruits is one of the fine arts; a good 
orchard is the work of an able man. Does chilling the body 
improve the mind? Does freezing improve the quality of 
man, beast or vegetable? Does the heat of a tropical sun 
give energy or ambition? Neither extreme is favorable. But 
give me a genial clime, a generous soil, clouds laden with 
moisture and skies sparkling with dew — a land where human 
effort me.ets a kind return; where fruit trees grow to maturity 
in shortest time and where returns are made with largest 
liberality. 

Men are only thankful for favors received and always re- 
spond promptly to the touch of plenty. Pinching cold, chat- 
tering teeth, frost-bitten limbs awake neither intelligence, en- 
terprise, thankfulness or genius in man. We love to work in 
comfort — neither hot nor cold, but on the middle plane ; no 
cold to freeze or heat to burn. And this most favorable place 
and these most favorable conditions we find ii] Southwest 
Louisiana, the future home of the orchards of America, where 
the finest quality of fruits are raised without irrigation, with 
little care, on a clay soil, which gives highest flavor and best 
success in raising trees from cuttings, thereby avoiding the 



78 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

expense of budding and grafting, insuring more abundant 
•crops of the finest varieties, and so situated that fruit picked 
by day can reach a seaboard market by the next morning, and 
the home of its most enterprising and prospeious peoj)le. A 
land of grass, a land of fruit, a land of easy conditions and 
;great natural advantages? 

WHY THEY NEVER FEEL THE COLD. 

'Yes," remarked the St. Paul man to a friend from Chi- 
cago, as he stood arrayed in his blanket suit and adjusted a 
couple of buckskin chest protectors : "Yes, there is something 
about the air in this Northwestern climate which causes a 
person not to notice the cold. Its extreme dryness," he con- 
tinued, as he drew on a pair of extra woolen socks, a pair of 
Scandinavin sheep-skin boots, and some Alaska overshoes — 
"it's extreme dryness makes a degree of cold, reckoned by 
the mercury, which would be unbearable in other latitudes, 
simply exhilarating here. I have suffered more with the cold 
in Michigan, for instance," he added, as he drew on a pair of 
goat-skin leggings, adjusted a double" fur cap, and tied on 
some Esquimaux ear muffs — "in Michigan or Illinois, we will 
say, with the thermometer at zero or above, than I have Iiere 
with it at 45 to 50 below. The dryness of our winter air is 
certainly remarkable," he went on, as he wound a couple rods 
of red woolen scarf about his neck, wrapped a dozen news- 
papers around his body, drew on a fall cloth overcoat, a win- 
ter cloth overcoat, a light buffalo skin overcoat, and a heavy 
polar bear skin overcoat; "no, if you have never enjoyed our 
glorious Minnesota winter climate with its dry atmosphere, 
its bright sunshine, and invigorating ozone, you would scarce- 
ly believe some things I could tell you about it. The air is 
so dry," he continued, as he adjusted his leather nose protec- 
tor, drew on his reindeer skin mittens, and carefully closed 
one eye hole in the sealskin mask he drew down from his cap 
■ — "it's so dry that actually it seems next to impossible to feel 
tlie cold at all. We can <8carcely realize in the spring that 
we have had winter, owing to the extreme dryness of the at- 
mosphere. By the way," he went on, turning to his wife, 
"just ])ring me a couple of blankets and those bed quilts and 
throw over my shoulders, and hand me that muff with the hot 
soapstone in it, and now I'll take a pull at this jug of br^Cndy 
and whale oil, and then if you'll have the girl bring me my 



° ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 79 

snow shoes and iceberg scaling sticks, 111 step over and see 
them pry the workmen oif the top of the ice palace who were 
frozen on yesterday. I tell you we wouldn't be going out this 
way, 500 miles further south, where the air is damp and 
chilly. Nothing but our dry air makes it possible." — Chicago 
Tribune^ 



Healthfulnkss.— -If the same care was exercised in Lou- 
isiana to keep the system in order as in the Northern States, 
the average health of the family would be much better here 
than there. There is very little malaria in the prairie region 
of Southwestern Louisiana, and that is easily managed by or- 
dinary care. 

Topography, Etc. — Along the entire Gulf Const, and 
from thirty to seventy miles northward, it is prairie, intersect- 
ed by rivers and interspersed with picturesque lakes and wood- 
land. North of the prairie is a vast forest of yellow pine, oak, 
hickory, beech, gum, magnolia, etc., of great value for lum- 
ber. The surface is quite rolling near the streams, but more 
remote rises into slightly undulating table lands. 

Roads. — These are easily and quickly made with clay 
that packs well and is easily handled, fall, winter or spring; 
can be made first class for fifty to seventy five dollars per 
mile. Calcasieu Parish has a large fund for road purposes 
and is letting contracts for grading and bridging wherever 
right of way has been obtained. The old custom of forty feet 
wide is passing away with long-horned stock and sixty feet is 
the coming fashion. 

Other parishes are adopting modern methods of road 
work, one man to oversee and graders and teams to be kept 
at it all the season. 

Water. — We have an abundant supply, fify-five inches 
annual rainfall, divided quite evenly among the months of the 
year as follows: 

Average for seventeen years. — January, four and nine- 
tenths; February, four and nine-tenths; March, four and 
six-tenths ; April, five and sixth-tenths ; May, four and eight- 
tenths; June, three and five-tenths; July, three and nine tenths; 
August, two and one-tenth; September, four and four-tenths; 
October, four and four-tenths; November, four and eight- 
tenths ; December, five and two-tenths ; average yearly fifty- 
two and four-tenths inches. 



30 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

A small cistern costing twenty to twenty-five dollars 
Avill keep a good family supply of the sweetest, purest water, 
^always cool enough and always handy. Well water in abun- 
dance at fifteen to twenty-five feet, through a clay soil, gen- 
'erally soft, and about at the best temperature for drinking 
safely summer or winter, 65° to 70° Fahrenheit. 

For people living near rice fields the cistern is perfectly 
safe and to be recommended. We have rivers and lakes with 
an abundant supply of good water so much needed for all 
growing crops. Hundreds of engines and pumps are lift- 
ing the water twenty to thirty feet high into flumes which 
carry it for miles to be used over thousands of acres of grow- 
ing rice and by and by over our fields of sugar cane, fifteen 
to twenty-five tons per acre without irrigation. What yields 
will be made when an abundant supply of water is given dur- 
ing the dryest time — no more short joints in our canes. 
There are times in every season when irrigation would pay. 

For house use, rain water is the best, but most of the 
farmers use well water, wiiich is abundant and of good quality 
generally. The springs, creeks and rivers afford abundant 
stock water. 

Spanish Moss. — Grows along all the rivers and bayous of 
Southwestern Louisiana. In its green state its color is grey 
(not as bad as a green blackberry, which is red.) It is an 
aereophyte attached to trees, feeds upon air. It grows in 
great abundance, is easily gathered and cured. It blooms 
annually and reproduces itself when gathered from the trees. 
Can be gathered for thirty cents per hundred pounds. Cured 
and cleaned for one cent a pound and sells at three to four 
cents per pound in market. Is used like hair in upholstering 
and saddlery. No one need to starve near a moss field. It 
reproduces in six months ; is said by some to be more profit- 
able than a cotton field ready grown. 

Insects — There are fewer flies than upon the Northern 
prairies, and about the same number of mosquitoes and harm- 
ful snakes. 

Schools, Society and Politics. — Schools are not as numer- 
ous in the country as in the North, but there are good school 
laws, and as fast as the country settles schools can be 
secured. There are many Northern people in Southwestern 
Louisiana, and more are coming every day. The native pop- 
ulation are kind and friendly. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 8l 

Property is safe. There are fewer locks and keys in the 
rural districts than in any country of equal extent in America. 
You can vote as you please and every vote will be fairly 
counted 



SPEECH OF SECT'Y OF AGRICULTURE, JAS. WILSON, 

DELIVERED AT JENNINGS, LA., MAY 15, 1899, 

Ladies and Gentlemen j 

" I came down to the State of Louisiana to learn my du- 
ty towards you ; to see what it might be possible for me to do 
to serve you and make the Department of Agriculture do you 
some good in connection with the cultivation of these mag- 
uiticent prairies down here. 

The President of the United States requires me to make 
the Department useful and serviceable to all localities of the 
country. He is just as anxious that the people of Louisiana, 
and this part of Louisiana, should prosper and be happy as 
he is that the people of his own home, iu Ohio, should pros- 
per and be happy. Therefore, in order to live in peace with 
the President, I have to be on the go and see what the Agri- 
cultural Department can do for the people throughout the 
country, here and there. (Applause.) 

I have known nothing of the South, except by reading, 
until within the last year when I visited most of the Gulf 
States east of you to study the conditions of Agriculture there. 

This is not a typical Southern town I know. If you 
were to drop a Northern man down here in the night, when 
daylight came, he would say ' Well, I happened to fall upon a 
Northern village.' Everything looks so much like what I 
have seen in the North, Those homes look like Northern 
homes. Those people look like Northern people. 

But you have come here to build up homes and make 
the most of your opportunities. You have shown a rapid 
growth. I have seen your beautiful school house and church- 
es. But you are doing what all other localities in the North 
are doing — building too many churches. When I was a boy, 
I remember that we built six or seven churches more than we 
needed, but we supported them all and probably it was the 
wisest thing to do any way. You have made a good start, 
however ; a good start. 



82 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

My business is to study production ; PRODUCTION I 
My visit to the South is for that purpose. 

If you wiU stop to consider for a moment, you will see 
the humor of putting a stranger on the stand either for the 
purpose of entertaining or instructing you ; in fact, you 
should all be up here telling me something about yourselves, 
because it is very evident I will not be able to tell you any- 
thing that you don't know. 

Let me tell you one thing that has astonished me — sur- 
prised me. I had supposed that the animal industries would 
never be successful in the South as they are in the North. 
That idea was based on the impression that you could not 
produce grasses, legumes, etc. as we produce them up there, 
and for that reason your efforts in that direction must be 
limited. All the states east of you, bordering on the Gulf, 
grow some of the legumes we have in the North that are nec- 
essary for the support of the domestic animal. But when I 
come here to Louisiana, I find everything that grows in the 
North growing here. It is true they do not grow in this 
neighborhood; possibly, the seeds may not have reached this 
neighborhood. I did think that the climatic conditions were 
such that the various legumes such as red clover, white clov- 
er, in fact all the varieties would not grow down here, but 
when I come to Louisiana I find them growing everywhere 
in the settled portions of your state and so I have come to 
the conclusion that it is not climatic conditions but soil con- 
ditions that make the distinction ; that this magnificent stretch 
of country between here and New Orleans will grow all these 
things simply because it has the proper soil which is not the 
case in the Gult states east of here. 

You see the conditions between Louisiana and Iowa, we 
will say for illustration, are very different. There you are 
frozen up half the year and are forced to do all your work in 
the summer time, while in Louisiana you have practically, no 
winter. 

Another distinction between Louisiana and Iowa I may 
make is, we have in Iowa thirty inches of rainfall and you 
have sixty. 

You have certain conditions of heat and we have also. 
It may occur to some people who come here for the first time 
that the great objection to Louisiana is the amount of heat 
you have down here, and I have no doubt July and August 



i54 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

are a little warmer than is comfortable, but take all the con- 
ditions as they exist here and they are much more favorable 
than they are in Iowa. 

I have mentioned the value of the legume. No country 
can succeed without it. It is impossible to go on year after 
year producing any crop without legumes — that is without 
clovers ; or in their stead cow peas. And why? Because 
there is no other way under the sun by which nitrogen gets 
into the soil and when you exhaust the nitrogenous matter 
from the soil you cannot produce enough on it to make a liv- 
ing. 

Twenty years ago we were growing wheat. For ten to 
fifteen years we exhausted the soil and we could not grow a 
crop any longer. The questiou arose, what are we going to 
do? The answer was, you must either milk cows and make 
dairy products or starve; so take your choice. It was a des- 
perate alternative left to a proud, spirited people who had 
been in the habit of riding on a plow with a spring seat be- 
neath them and a canopy over them to have to get down on a 
milking stool and milk cows for a living. But Ladies and 
Gentlemen, we have come to it, and I will tell you, people 
will milk cows before they will starve. We have today, in 
the state of Iowa over a thousand Creameries, and we sell 
thirty millions pounds of butter. That is how we got out of 
the difficulty. 

You sent one man to Congress last winter, General Mc- 
Enery who stood by your interest, and you have a protective 
tariff on your rice. But in raising this one crop you ere in 
danger. It always comes to the people who confine them- 
selves to one crop instead of diversifying. 

Two years ago the state of Iowa raised so much corn it 
only brought 10 cts. a bushel. 

It is true that the United States of America does not 
produce more than one third of the rice it consumes, so you 
have some time to get ready for the diversification of your 
crops. 

Now I am only going to talk a few minutes, but permit 
me to turn in another direction in my efforts to entertain you. 
You have heat, moisture and an open winter. You can pro- 
duce fine horses down here in the South. We sold fifty 
thousand head of horses last year to Europe, and the demand 
is growing all the time and the price increasing. But there 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC <S^ 

is a horse we do not produce in the North, and that is the 
high-spirited saddle horse which is only found in the South. 
Whether you have them here or not I do not know. When 
you produce fine hunting horses, you can get your own price 
for them. 

I have seen as fine Jersey cows since coming here as I 
have, seen anywhere. I have eaten as good butter in the 
South as I have eaten anywhere and what one man has done 
another can do. 

You can grow Alfalfa, the crimson clover and twenty 
other things in the winter. You have green food for your 
cows and can make as fine butter as is produced in the 
North. 

You can raise the early lambs. I have seen them in 
Louisiana today, and what one man has done another man 
can do. • The early lamb is wanted as much in the North as 
your early strawberries and they are not produced in suffi- 
cient numbers to supply the demand. We have to send to 
Europe for them. 

And when you have the dairy started, you can produce 
what the South has been famous for for years — the Southern 
Ham ; a ham which sells from twenty-five to forty-five cents 
a pound, and we want the very finest in Washington. It is 
produced away from the cornfield. In the great cornfields 
of the North we produce hogs and have to send them to Chi- 
cago for fat. 

We buy seventy one millions pounds of tea and pay over 
ten millions of dollars for it. I propose to have a garden es- 
tablished in every Southern state. There was one in South 
Carolina where it has been demonstrated we can grow tea 
and grow it as fine as anywhere in the world. 

Do you know that Easter Lilies (the Bermuda Lily) cost 
forty cents each last Easter? My business is that whenever 
I find Uncle Sam buying things outside, to stop it. So I 
bought five hundred dollars worth of those bulbs and put 
$125.00 worth of them in North Carolina, $125.00 worth in 
Mississippi, $125.00. worth in Louisiana and $125.00 worth in 
L'^ew Mexico, and we will find out from some of those four 
Southern states where our people can get their Easter Lilies. 

I am very glad to have had the opportunity to meet you 
here tonight. We just stopped off, as it were, so I might 
look you in the face and make your acquaintance, and tell 



S6 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

you of our good intentions, and to say that anything that can 
be done will be done by the present Administration to help 
you along in all your undertakings. 

I might add one thing more. You grow sugar down 

here. From New York all the way to the Pacific Coast, the 
states are beginning to make sugar from the sugar-beet, and 
in future, when Congress meets and considers the wisdom of 
keeping the duty on foreign sugar, or taking it off, you will 
see the Northern people there to fight your battles for you. 
(Applause.) 

There is something here I think you could not see un- 
der much finer auspices, and which we did not see in the ear- 
ly days in the Northwest. I refer to the railways. In the 
Southern Pacific you have one of the finest railways in the 
world and its roadbed is one of the best I have ever, ridden 
over in my life. (Applause.) 

In the early days, those who managed railroads were 
not very civil, but the gentlemen managing your railroads 
are gentlemen to begin with. So I see your lot is placed in 
pleasant places. 

I thank you for listening to me and bid you good night. 



PROF. W. C. STUBBS 

on diversified farming. 

Sugar Experiment Station, 
Audubon Park, New Orleans, La., June 14, 1899. 
Mr. S. L. Cary, Jennings, La. 

My Dear Sir: — In expressing an opinion as to the adapta- 
bility of Southwestern Louisiana to diversified agriculture, it 
is easier to tell what it connot grow than what it can. Bx- 
perimentfj have demonstrated that, on account of the level 
contour of your soil and the easy availability of water through 
your numerous streams, bayous, coolies or artesian wells, rice 
growing has temporarily monopolized your farmers. I am in- 
formed that there are over 350 miles of canals now flooding 
the rice fields with water and your people with wealth. To 
these can be added nearly one hundred artesian wells which 
are irrigating from fifty to one hundred acres each annually. 
This great rice industry in Southwest Louisiana has almost 
revolutionized the rice industry in the United States. South 
Carolina was once the leader in the growing of rice, and 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 87 

Louisiana was second best. At that time the hulk of the rice 
grown in this State was upon the banks of the Mississippi 
River and its outlying bayous. Now the largest quantity is 
grown upon the prairies of Southwest Louisiana where exten- 
sive irrigation plants, improved implements and excellent and 
numerous rice machines are fully utilized for the purpose of 
making this crop intelligently and cheaply. 

But rice is not the only thiug that can be grown in this 
section. If your lauds be well drained and your soils thor- 
oughly broken, thrown into ridges, quarter-drains and ditches 
properly established, and planted in cane, it is doubtful 
whether any portion of this State can exceed yours in the pro- 
fitable growing of this crop. It has been demonstrated that 
your soil produces cane exceedingly rich in sugar, and that 
the ease with which your soil can be cultivated, the presence 
of a large number of central factories eager to purchase the 
same by the ton, are all strong inducements for the substitu- 
tion of this crop, at least in part, for the rice industry now 
engaged in by nearly every citizen in Southwest Louisiana. 
Again, if your lands be thoroughly drained, which can 
easily be done, whenever parochial or State authority inter- 
venes for the establishment and condemnation of drainage 
canals and ditches, there is hardly any crop, either subtropical 
or temperate, that cannot be successfully grown in this sec- 
tion. Pears of the oriental type, oranges of the Japanese 
type, grafted upon citrus trofoliata, figs of every variety, Ja- 
panese persimmons, and other fruits, can be grown here to 
perfection. Oats of the Rust-proof variety, sown in the fall 
will produce an enormous crop. We have every assurance 
that tobacco of the cigar type, now being grown upon the 
bluff lands of Central Louisiana, can be grown upon the prai- 
ries of this section on account of the similarity of soil and 
climate conditions. 

' I need not say anything of cotton or corn. It goes with- 
out saying, that every portion of Louisiana can grow both cot- 
ton and corn profitably. 

Another industry, which once flourished in an uninteli- 
gent manner upon these pr'airies before they were peopled, 
is the growing of stock, which can again, under intelligent 
direction, be made far more profitable than in former years. 
With the present price of beef, and the introduction of some 
of 1 he improved breeds of beef cattle, I know of no section 



88 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

of the country that has such possibilities before it in the 
growing of beef cattle for market, as yours. 

With "cotton seed meal" so available around you, and 
with "rice bran and polish" right at your door, all, at what may 
be en lied initial prices, supplementing the superior grazing 
of your section of the country, beef cattle can be grown 
at large profits. 

Leguminous crops of all kinds, when properly planted 
and intelligently inaugurated, will materially add to the 
success of this industry when established. Alfalfa, now such 
a wonderful success in all the alluvial lands of this State, 
can by proper preparation of the soil, fertilization and in- 
ocul&tion, be made a success in your section, and when a 
field is once established the numerous crops that can be 
cut therefrom amply repay the labor and expense involved 
in establishing it. 

I sincerely trust that your efibrts which have accom- 
plished so much in peopling this section, may in the near 
future reach such a degree of success as to overflow South- 
west Louisiana, and aid us in developing the other fertile 
sections of this State. Very truly yours, 

Wm. C. Stdbbs, Director. 

MACHINERY. 

WHAT MACHINERY HAS DONE FOR SOUTH^VESTERN LOtTISIANA. 

It has made it possible for a few men from the Northwest 
to capture the rice industry. It has enabled one man with a 
machine and four mules to do the work of thirty to forty men 
in harvest which lasts three months of the year. The 3,000 
twine binding harvesters in use, represent for three months 
an unseen population of 100,000 men, who never strike, ask 
for no holidays, never hunger, thirst, or get tired. It gives to 
one man the productive capacity of thirty. A good machine 
is the laboring man's best friend. It at first displaces labor, 
educates, and gives the power to earn better wages. There 
is very little or no prejudice against machinery in South wes- 
f^ern Louisiana. Threshing is done by the same machine 
^(slightly modified) that is used for wheat North, using a 
traction engine of ten to twelve horse power, about 150 in 
use. The large rice fields are supplied with pumps and 
engines. A pump of large capacity, driven by a fifty horse 
power engine, will flood successfully 300 to 500 acres. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 89 

depending upon the season (wet or dry). The same engines 
for running threshing machines are largely used for pump- 
ing on smaller fields. Plows, harrows, cutaways, rollers and 
pulverizers of most improved pattern are used. Plowing by 
steam is being done experimentally, it's true ; but the nature 
of the soil, the lay of the land, and the enterprise of the 
people warrant success, 

A very large amount of machinery has been sold, and 
yet the agents say collections are much better here than 
elsewhere. 

SAFE AND PROFITABLE INVESTMENTS. 

Southwestern Louisiana offers a clear field. Few mort- 
gages, and land titles very short direct from the Government. 
Besides, these lands are capable of earning more than ordi- 
nary lands, as they grow the most valuable crops — sugar and 
rice. All northern products are grown and mature earlier 
and later than the usual season, making them particularly 
valuable. For instance, Irish potatoes ripen in May, straw- 
perries in February, grapes in July, dewberries in April^ 
peaches in May, pears in July, oats in June, corn in July. 
The first thirty days of the market is worth more than all the 
rest of the year. We have the benefit of climate which costs 
nothing and adds ninety per cent to values. At this time, 
March 1, fruit trees are in full bloom, vegetables of most 
kinds at and near maturity; those things saved, are of 
immense value. The average date of last killing frosts for 
the past thirty years, for Louisiana, is March 5, and the 
nearer the coast the less the danger. Now, along the line 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, we have passed the great 
danger line, while fifty to one hundred miles north, both fruit 
and vegetables have been killed. If our products are killed 
sometimes by late frosts, still we have earlier seeding than 
anywhere north of us, as we are only liable to same freezes in 
March that Iowa and Illinois have in May, so that in every 
way Southwestern Louisiana is a safer place fi)r investment 
than elsewhere. 

WHAT WE WERE TOLD BY "WE TOLD YOU SO," AND HOW IT 

CAME OUT. 

We were told that Southern people had no enterprise^ 
lacked vigor, were indolent, and that we would become lazy 
and lose all our energy within two years. Our sufficient 



90 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

answer is to point to what we liave done in the rice crop. 
We have outgrown the capacity of the rice mills and com- 
mission men of New Orleans, have raised to the full extent of 
the ability of the great Southern Pacific Railroad to handle. 
Commencing a few years ago with a shipment of 2,000,000 
pounds, next season 4,000,000, then 8,000,000, then 16,000,- 
000, then 63,000,000, then 180,000,000 1891 and 1892, and 
now 1892 and 1893 over 300,000,000 pounds, show that our 
Southern 1)rethren have not been behind us in the race. We 
were told that we should be ostracised for opinion's sake 
Answer, not so. We were told that we' would be more sup- 
ject to epidemics. Answer, not so. We were told that the 
climate was enervating. Answer, if so, how is it that all 
civilizations have sprung from warm countries. " Climates 
that grow oranges have grown all civilizations.'" Yellow 
fever was the great "scare crow." Answer, yellow fever 
does not originate in the Southern States, is controlled l)y 
quarantine, and is more easily cured than many Nortliern 
diseases that cannot be quarantined. Even the gentle grippe 
has more victims North than yellow fever in same length of 
time South. Diphtheria is more fatal, and does nearly all 
his deadly work north of the Ohio River. Diphtheria, a 
Northern disease, is more fatal than any Southern disease. 
Smallpox is mainly a Northern disease. We were told that 
roses had no fragrance, fruits no flavor. Both are untrue. 
We were told that the country was a marsh. Our prairies 
are not boggy. Our lands, some are low, and some are high 
and rolling, wet and dry on nearly every quarter section, 
making each farm the more valuable on account of this 
variety. The value of the land is enhanced by its varieties, 
its ])eculiarities. If I had the only farm that could grow any 
particular crop of general use, ils value would be immense. 



SOUTHERN HOMES. 

The folhjwing letter from Mr. W. J. Randolph, of Millers- 
ville, Louisiana, to a friend in Dakota, is quite interesting, 
and especially so to hundreds of families in the Northwest 
now looking southward for Southern homes. Millersville is 
only 8 miles north of Jennings, on the celebrated Calcasieu 
prairie, that is being settled almost exclusively by Northern 
people : 



ON LINE- OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 91 

MlLLERSVILLE, La., 

Dear Brother Fasset. — The Neios still conies to me, 
forwarded from Spottswood. Now facts are, I am not able to 
take all the news — I am abundantly able to take, but am not 
able to pay for them. If you are so interested in my know- 
ing the capacity of the average Dakota newspaper man for 
expanding the naked truth, you better send the paper here, 
but for your own safety, and financial success, you better 
"stop-her." I stayed in the banana belt too long to have dol- 
lars around loose. When I read of 30^ below zero and no 
coal, I shudder and wonder if I really was ever there. We 
have had a few frosts, the grass is green and cattle and 
horses on the range are fat and sleek. I am writing in a 
room without fire and doors open. We don't fear a coal 
famine ; we can go and get enough fuel to last a week in an 
hour's time, and it won't cost a cent. We live on as beauti- 
ful prairie as ever lay out of doors. Magnificent timber of all 
kinds on either side within a mile and a half. Good fence 
lumber costs $7 per thousand feet, and health is as good or 
better than in Dakota. Abundance of wild fruit from March 
to August. Peaches, nectarines, apricots, figs, Japan persim- 
mons are propagated from cuttnigs and come into bearing in 
two years. Pears begin to bear in from 3 to 5 years and this 
is the home of the best. These prairies produce grass to beat 
the world ; will average more to the acre than ten acres in 
Dakota. There have been thousands of tons of hay shipped 
this fall at prices that net more cash than a Dakota wheat 
crop. These are some of the things that strike a Dakota man 
favorably ; could tell you some things not quite so pleasant, 
but nothing to compare to a straw fire. This country is fill- 
ing up with Northern people, property is advancing in price 
every day, and I have the first Northern settler yet to see 
who wants to spend the winter in Michigan. Horace Greely 
said, "it is easier to raise a steer in Texas, than to raise a hen 
in Maine," and I am not sure but it is cheaper to raise a 
whole herd of cattle here than to pull one old cow around by 
the horns, hunting for water and fresh grass in Dakota. Do 
you hear me shout? 

You better stop and put in some more straw, and I will 
hitch up and take a buggy ride, just for fun, and think of 
you poor fellows up there, pressing your nose against the 
window glass wondering when the storm will let up, the 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 93 

weather moderate and the cars will come laden with coal. 

Nothing but extreme poverty drove me out of Dakota, and 
how I do thank the good Lord for one spell of ])overty and 
that by contrasting this with Dakota, I can the more enjoy 
the glorious weather, the beauty of the landscape, etc. How 
we can laugh at the storm and the coal dcdlers and the straw 
pile ; how we can luxuriate on the sweet potato, rice, poultry, 
eggs, sugar and syrup, corn bread, beef at 5 cents per pound, 
etc., all of home production. 

Here, if we can't buy shoes, we can be independent and go 
bare-foot and never think of freezing. 

This is not for publication, and I am not booming the 
country. If I were, what a story I could tell. If the aver- 
age Dakota newspaper man was down here and should give 
rein to his imagination as at home, he would be looking for 
the Great White Throne and the River of Life, the Streets of 
Gold and the Pearly Gates. It would be necessary to swathe 
him in a suit of Dakota winter clothes to keep him from 
bursting and to put imported ice on his head to remind him 
of home and enable him to call in his ideas, take his bearings 
and find out where he really was. If you don't believe it 
come down and try it. 

Yours, W. J. Randolph. 



A REMARKABLE FACT. 

Providentially the Southern Pacific holds the key to the 
situation as regards the sugar, rice and hay industries of the 
State. Only twelve years since the Carolinas raised the rice 
of the United States. At that time the delta of the Mississip- 
pi raised the rice of Louisiana. All done by colored labor. 

At that time the vSouthern Pacific Railroad Company put 
an agent in the field to attact emigration to the prairies of 
Southwest Louisiana. We induced the men of the Northwest 
to come, and these men brought with them the improved farm 
machinery, with which they cultivated their lands and made 
a living — "labor saving machinery." 

There were vast quantities of grass rotting annually. 
The mower, stacker, gatherer and hay press were brought 
into use, and to-day thousands of tons find their way over 
the Southern Pacific to Texas and Mexico. 



04 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

These men saw the rice cro23 secured with a hook or 
sickle, for a harvester. They put a twine-binding harvester 
into the iield, and this season 4,000 machines, capable of 
harvesting 30,000 to 40,000 acres per day, are in the rice 
fields of Southwestern Louisiana. The industry is revolution- 
ized by machinery handled by white men ; so that the great 
rice crop which twelve years ago was grown by the Carolinas 
and the Mississippi Delta, is now grown in Southwestern 
Louisiana. 

And now the outlook is the same for the great sugar in- 
dustry. The tendency is to leave the low bottoms, subject 
more or less, to overflow, and take the higher lands that are 
much easier to cultivate and handle. The first move of im- 
portance was made in 1892, when the agent of the company 
took samples of prairie-grown cane to Audubon Park for 
analysis, and Professor Stubbs announced that these samples^ 
contained 30 to 50 per cent, above the average Louisiana 
cane in sugar, or from 14.4 to 16.4 per cent, sucrose. Then 
thousands of circulars telling these facts were printed by the 
company and circulated through the Northwest. 

The next great step is the erection of a diffusion sugar 
house at Lake Charles, by a student of Prof. Stubbs, after 
learning these facts. It is proven that cane grows as well 
on the prairies as on the bottoms, and is sweeter, lands are 
cheaper, and white men and machinery will make this indus- 
try as successful as they do the rice. And the Southern Pa- 
cific Company feel the vast importance and value of these in- 
dustries to the whole country ; having inaugurated this great 
change, involving questions of national importance, will en- 
deavor to carry it forward to complete success. 

The United States supplies of sugar and rice are involved 
in this experiment, and all indications point to success. 

There is enough good prairie land along the line of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad in Louisiana t3 furnish hay to the 
State, and sugar and rice for the United States. 

The price of undeveloped land is $5 to $20 per acre; 
improved land $15 to $50. 

Will you come and help solve the problem, and develop 
this new and most valuable country, with the assurance of 
large profits and of unusually favorable general conditions? 

Successful farming is reduced to stock-raising even in 
the Northwest. Grass is the best form, and warm weather 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC- 95 

the best time in wliich to feed stock. "Go South, young 
man, go South." And when you go south, GO SOUTH ! 

READ THIS. 

The value of advice is measured mainly by experience. A 
man who has traveled from ocean to ocean and from Grand 
Forks, North Dakota, to the Gulf of Mexico, who has lived 
North in three states fifty-six years and in Southwestern 
Louisiana fifteen years, and w^ho has crossed every belt of 
production, every month of the year for ten years, should be 
able to give intelligent and therefore valuable advice to land 
and home seekers. And be says, that while there is no para- 
dise on earth, Southwestern Louisiana comes nearer filling 
the bill for an ideal home than any other country he has ever 
seen, and if you read carefully the opinions of the many writ- 
ers in this book, all being experts in the lines written about, 
that you need not go astray in making your selection of the 
kind of business to follow and the place to locate your 
home. 

The great w^ants of this country are : Banking capital, 
which can be safely and profitably invested, and the better 
classes of farmers. I know of no place where intelligent 
farming, assisted by capital, will pay such dividends as here. 
Cash, labor and brains are at a premium here and will enrich 
the owner beyond a doubt. 

COTTON. 

Cotton is raised to some extent in Southwestern Louisi- 
ana, but is not a favorite crop, and of late years, owing to low 
prices, did not pay. 

The Northern immigrant does not take kindly to cotton 
growing; perhaps he may when cotton picking is done by 
machinery. It undoubtedly pays better than wheat, oats or 
corn raising iu the North. The yield is a half-bale per acre 
planted in March, cultivated like corn, picked in September, 
October and November, costing to grow same as corn until 
harvesting, which costs fifty cents to one dollar per 100 lbs. 
The seed is becoming more valuable year by year, is the best 
feed for stock and a good fertilizer. 

One thousand pounds of seed with each 500 pounds of 
lint cotton seed is worth |12 to $20 a ton. Its uses are 
numerous ; competes with oleo for supremacy in making 
good dairy butter. 



96 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



TIMBER. 

Large bodies of excellent timber occupy fully one-half of 
Southwest Louisiana. The varieties are almost endless. The 
quality the very best. Hard pine, cypress, oak, ash, gum 
and hickory are leading. A very large business in lumber 
and shingles is done the year round. Men from Michigan 
are leading. The timber is well located along the rivers, 
lakes and bayous, is accessible, and lumbering on a large 
scale goes on summer and winter. 

• LAKE CHARLES. 

BY PROF S. A. KNAPP. 

On the Calcasieu River is the metropolis of Southwestern 
Louisiana and destined to be the great central city between 
New Orleans and Houston, Texas, a distance of 360 miles. 
Look at facts : 

1. It has an admirable location on one of the most beau- 
tiful lakes in America and upon a river broad, deep and navi- 
gable at all times of the year. 

Lake Charles (the lake) is two miles wide by two and 
one-half miles long and through it flows the Calcasieu River. 
The waters of the lake are clear and its banks are bold, except 
on the north and southwest, where giant semi-tropical forests 
do battle with the waves. The Calcasieu River, one thousand 
feet broad and sixty feet deep, flows from the northeast till 
within one-fourth of a mile of the lake, where it makes a 
graceful curve to the west and enters the lake on the western 
shore. The city of Lake Charles extends from the river upon 
the north along the eastern shore of the lake to the river 
upon the south. For beauty of location Lake Charles sur- 
passes every city upon the Gulf coast. 

2. It is upon the Southern Pacific Railroad, 218 miles 
west of New Orleans. The Calcasieu, Vernon & Shreveport 
Railroad, now under construction, will give an air line to 
Kansas City. 

3. It is a city of 7000 inhabitants, manufactures 650,- 
000 feet of lumber, 320,000 shingles daily; has three banks; 
four newspapers ; nine sawmills; one sugar refinery; the lar- 
gest rice mill in America; car shops; waterworks; street 
railways ; electric lights, etc. It is increasing in population 
at the rate of two thousand per year. 



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98 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

4. Appropriation has been made to improve the harbor 
at the mouth of the Calcasieu, which will give Lake Charles 
one of the best harbors on the Gulf of Mexico. 

5. It is positively the best location in the South to es- 
tablish the following lines of manufacture : 

First, furniture ; second, wagons ; third, chairs ; fourth, 
agricultural implements; fifth, cotton or woolen factories; 
sixth, iron works, engine building, etc.; seventh, it is a place 
where investments pay ; eighth, it is one of the best winter 
resorts on the Gulf, and has many Northern visitors every 
season. 

6. Lake Charles is essentially a Northern city, wide 
awake, progressive and modern. 

7. Much of the growth of Lake Charles is due to the 
advantages afforded by the vSouthern Pacific Railroad and its 
superior service in passenger and freight traffic. 

WELSH, LA. 

S. L. Cary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — "In the bend of the bayou she sits snugly 
ensconsed.'' This is the first line of an article from the pen 
of a well-known writer, and can be most fully appreciated by 
the stranger as he approaches the town from the north or 
northeast. It is a growing town of about 350 inhabitants, 
and was incorporated under the laws of the State. Situated 
on the Southern Pacific Haikoad in Calcasieu Parish, 195 
miles west of New Orleans, 110 east of Houston, and twenty- 
three miles east of Lake Charles, the parish seat. Located 
in the forks of two lovely wooded streams which afford ex- 
cellent drainage, and in the center of large timber areas and 
rich prairies extending many miles in each direction, it is cer- 
tainly an ideal site, considered both from commercial and 
picturesque points of view. From a simple railway station 
with two small stores and a blacksmith shop, Northern emi- 
gration has developed in four years, three large dry goods and 
grocery stores, one hardware and furniture store, two drug 
stores, one restaurant, a meat market, a livery and feed stable, 
two neat little churches (Methodist and Congregational) and 
a public school building of modern design, thirty by sixty 
feet, two stories high. And all this has come about with rice 
as the only money-making farm crop. What it will be when 
sugar cane, fruit and live stock have been given the same at- 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 99 

tentioii, is a matter of conjecture. Men of experience and 
close observation do not hesitate to predict for the town and 
country a very bright future. Along both sides of the larger 
bayou that runs past the town on toward th'^ Gulf is a strip 
of magnificent hardwood timber, including several of the 
oaks, hickory, white holl}', cypress, sweet gum, and others. 
From the church belfry, lines of timber can be seen in the 
east, the north, and the west, but in no case are they less 
than twelve miles distant, the prairie like a grand panorama 
spn-ading out before you. These prairies that in early spring 
time are covered with lovely white flowers, and latter with 
luxuriant waving grass, formerly supported large herds of 
horses and cattle. But as the laud has settled up and the 
farmer fenced in the best grazing lands, and on them planted 
rice, the stock industry has grown less and less each year. 
Many high-grade and thoroughbred short-horn cattle have 
been brought in by Northern settlers. Most of them live, 
and of these, many take well to their new pastures, while 
others do not seem to thrive. The Galloways and polled 
Angus do the best of all the noted beef cattle brought here. 
They will l)e fat in a pasture of native grasses, where on the 
same feed a short-horn will be poor. There is very little at- 
tention given on the part of farmers, at present, to improving 
their beef cattle, but there is the most urgent need for better 
milch stock. Thoroughbred Holsteins or Jerseys are just as 
easily acclimated as any cattle, and are sure of producing a 
handsome revenue for their owners. The time is coming when 
hogs will be raised here in considerable numbers, but it is 
not advisable, at present, for a man going on to a new place 
to bring hogs with him. This is a good place for chickens. 
Either Egytian or red rice is a cheap and excellent feed. 
With a small amount of this feed and a sufficient grass range, 
hens will lay the whole year, except a short time in midsum- 
mer. More liberal rations will fatten them nicely for market. 
The acreage in rice for the season of 1892 is at least fifty 
per-cent larger than the year before, and the yield much above 
an average. Some experiments this season have shown that 
$2.50 worth of fertilizer has aided in producing full crops on 
lands heretofore considered too high for rice. One man in 
this vicinity has just threshed over 2,000 barrels from 200 
acres of such land. Corn is grown in a small way, mostly 
by Creole farmers for their own use. The average yield is 



lOO SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

about twenty bushels per acre. As most of the farmiiio- at 
present is done with oxen, farmers generally buy cotton seed, 
which is better and cheaper feed. Two small pieces of oats 
were sown near town last fall. The yield w^as twenty-two 
bushels per acre and the quality very good. The result, 
though not large, shows that, with proper management, much 
better can be done, and that eTcry farmer can raise his own 
horse feed. The cultivation of sugar cane has been carried 
on in a small way for many years. To make syrup and a 
little sugar for home use has long l^een thought to be the 
most that would ever be done in that line. On the 16th of 
November, 1892, the first car of cane w^as shipped from this 
station to tlie Calcasieu Sugar Co. Without doubt this marks 
the beginning of an industry that will add very largely to the 
wealth and prosperity of this section. In fruit raising, little 
or nothing has been done, except to supply the home table. 
One man, living within a half mile of the depot, has set out 
over five hundred trees, and will plant more each year, intend- 
ing, eventually, to make it a special business. The thrift and 
vigor of the trees, the color and flavor of the fruits that are 
grown, is proof that the soil and climate favors horticulture 
in its highest forms. Most prominent in the large and grow- 
ing list are figs, pears, peaches and plums. Of the latter, the 
Japanese varieties are very promising. They are larger in 
size and better flavored than many of the California plums 
that have retailed here at five cents apiece. Oranges are a 
success under proper conditions. Six miles south of town is 
an orchard that is now supplying the home market with ex- 
cellent fruit. Keep an eye on the fruit industry at Welsh. 

Yours truly, C. M. Field. 

JENNINGS, LA. 

Jennings received its name and location from tlie building 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, its name from a builder of 
the road, Jennings McComb, and its location by virtue of a 
divide on the high rolling prairie, giving the town a high, 
dry and commanding position on the largest prairie in the 
State. The first station agent was S. L. Cary, from Howard 
County, Iowa, who came to Jennings Feb. 7, 18S3, and took 
the office April 1 . Jennings then consisted of four buildings, 
depot, section house, one dwelling house and store, owned l)y 
A. D. McFarlain. The prairie around in all directions was 
either United States or State land. The station business was 
from $250 to $400 a month. This w^as the beginning of an 
immigration from the North and Northwest, amounting to fully 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC lOI 

10,000 people at this time. Gary was station agent about 
four years, putting in all his spare time in advertising this 
counfry by sending letters, circulars and books to his Northern 
friends, and was so successful that the Southern Pacific Com- 
pany promoted him to Northern Immigration Agent tor the 
company, with headquarters at Manchester Iowa. He has 
given tun information, has accompanied all excursions dis- 
tributed millions of circulars, maps and books has seen all the 
prairie region taken by home seekers, most of whom are troni 
lowa,givi^ng the settlement the name of the "Iowa Colony 
of which he is president. Jennings to-day has ne^riy 2,()00 
inhabitants, a freight and passenger business of $1^ 000 to 
SU,000 monthly. Will ship 1,000 carloads of rice of 20,000 
pounds each, 1895-90 (see table published herewith). Has 
two banks with $100,000 capital. Two newspapers, graded 
high school, eight churches, two sawmills, (capacity 20,000 
feet daily), two planing and two shingle mills, four rice mills, 
sash and door factory and novelty works, feed mill two 
druo--stores, two shoe stores, restaurant, three millinery 
stor^'es, three butcher shops, two liveries, three variety 
stores three groceries, three general stores, five hotels, 
and over three hundred buildings of all kinds. More atten- 
tion has been paid to fruit growing here than elsewhere m 
Southwestern Louisiana. 10,000 pear trees and as many 
more divided among figs, peaches, plums, oranges, olives, per- 
simmons, and many nut bearing trees, pecans, English wa- 
nut3, as well as berries and fine gardens. The city is head- 
quarters for the Iowa Colony, being a Northern village on 
Southern soil. It puts on Northern. style, and on its streets 
you can shake hands with people from every and any state 
north of Mason and Dixon's line, and they like to meet you, 
and are, if possible, more agreeably social since breathing 
Southern air. They seem to be on better terms with (rocl 
and themselves since landing in this genial clime of easy 
conditions. The history of Jennings is the history ot bouth- 
western Louisiana. All its towns and cities have partaken 
of the same general thrift and spirit. There has been^ no 
boom, and we hope there will be none. The country is a 
marvel of success, and wherever our hands have touched has 
prospered. The assessed value of our Calcasieu Parish has 
risen from $1,000,000 to $10,567,433, and a large industry has 



102 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

been secured to this Southwestern Louisiana by the introduc- 
tion of a twine-binding harvester to the rice fields, by an 
Iowa-Jennings farmer, Maurice Bryne. The health of the 
place is remarkable, as a visit to our beautiful cemetery will 
show. We are a church-going people, enterprising, wide 
awake, progressive. Our wants are capital, a sugar mill, 
cannery, a wagon factory, furniture factory. 



LAKE ARTHUR, LA. 

The Lake Arthur region deserves special mention. Four 
years ago it was only a wide prairie, covered with stock, not 
a single Northern man south of Jennings. To-day the town 
has inhabitants enough to incorporate, and will do so this 
winter. It has good schools and churches, will build a high 
school building at once, has good business houses, a live news- 
paper and the best hotel in Southwestern Louisiana. A rail- 
road is all they need to make it a splendid town, and their 
prospects for that are very encouraging. Large farms have 
been opened up all along the lake, clear to Bayou Lacacine, 
and for miles north and west large orchards of pears, plums 
and peaches have been planted and are doing extremely well. 
Beautiful homes, surrounded with all kinds of fruit trees and 
shrubbery, that would take from eight to ten years to build 
up in the North, now cover the praiiie, the effort of only from 
three to four years. This year there have been raised within 
a radius of ten miles from the lake, over 10,000 acres of rice, 
averaging twelve barrels to the acre. Sugar cane is being 
cultivated to a considerable extent. Corn, Irish and sweet 
potatoes do well. Land is selling at from $15 to $20 per acre, 
Parties visiting the South should not return without going to 
Lake Arthur and looking over this beautiful section. 

Your truly, E. L, Lee, Lake Arthur, La. 

GUEYDAN, LA. 
Gueydan is situated in Hamilton Parish, and is the cen- 
ter and shipping point of that most fertile prairie region 
bounded on the North by Bayou Queue de Sortue, whose wa- 
ters serve to irrigate the rice fields on the south by the open 
sea-marsh whence comes the salubrious salty Gulf breeze, on 
the east by the deep and navigable Vermilion River that 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 103 

empties into the Gulf, and on the west by the most beautiful 
Lake Arthur. This section of Southwest Louisiana is about 
35 miles in length by about 10 miles in width and forms part 
of the famous Bayou Teche country whose lands raise bounti- 
fully sugar caue, rice, corn, oats, potatoes, tobacco, vegetables 
of all kinds and a great variety of fruit. Shade trees do very 
well. 

The prairie, still uncultivated, is well adapted to stock 
raising. Rice is a good paying crop and is the one most ex- 
tensively raised. The lauds are suitably level and are easily 
irrigated by surface canals. A sure crop is thus assured. 

The Vermilion Development Co,, Ltd., is the most im- 
portant rice-irrigating concern in operation here, in fact the 
largest in the United States. In 1897 this Company irrigated 
10,000 acres of rice lands 5 in 1898, 15,000 acres, and 1899 
is irrigating 22,000 acres. The supply of water is inexhaust- 
ible, and the area of the lands that can be reached with these 
canals runs into the hundreds of thousands of acres. A con- 
servative estimate of the rice crop for 1899, around Gueydan, 
places it at 200,000 sacks. 

The town of Gueydan is the terminus of the Midland 
Branch of the Southern Pacific R. R., and has mail, express, 
telegraph and telephone facilities. Although as a new town 
it is fast increasing, and now counts with two large hotels, a 
wide-awake newspaper (Ihe Gueydan News), two large rice 
warehouses, one of which is 300 feet long, two lumber yards, 
several general merchandise stores, a public hall, feed store, 
saloons, blacksmith shops, livery stable, butcher shops, etc. 
The high school is located on its own block and is well at- 
tended. The public park is fenced and was planted last year 
with umbrella china trees well laid off. The Gulf breeze 
makes this one of the most healthy of locations. 

A paper mill would find rice straw for the hauling. Lands 
range from $ 1 5 to $50, according to location. 

J. P. Gueydan. 



I04 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



ACADIA PARISH, LA. 

SOME FACTS ABOUT ACADIA PARISH, THE CENTER OF THE GREAT RICE-RAIS- 
ING DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA, AND ITS BUSTLING, BUSY AND GRO^WING 
CAPITAL, CRO"WXEY, THE TOAVN THAT IS KNO^WrN ALL OVER THE 
UNITED STATES AS THE "QUEEN CITY OF SOUTITWEST LOUISIANA." 
IT HAS EARNED THIS DISTINCTION AND -WILL KEEP IT. 

Seldom iii the history of any state outside of a mining 
district has a town had such a rapid, substantial and sure 
growth as this town has experienced. Seldom in the history 
of any agricultural section has a country or parish made such 
rapid strides as Acadia Parish in the last five years. Seldom 
in the history of any country has its residents found them- 
selves so suddenly and surely lifted from poverty to affluence 
as have the people of Acadia Parish and the residents of 
Crowley, La. 

To one who has not marked its progress, step by step, the 
results of five years of labor by its founders, W. W. Duson & 
Bro., in developing this country and building up this town 
seems almost beyond belief. Fourteen years ago the parish 
of Acadia had never been heard of, having been created from 
the undeveloped portion of St. Landry Parish in October, 
1886, and not until two or three years after did its founders, 
W. W. and C. C. Duson, conceive the idea of building what 
is the present city of Crowley. How well they have suc- 
ceeded is shown by the following facts: 

Previous to the founding of the new parish this section of 
the country was held in very poor repute. Lands were of no 
value — from twelve and one-half cents to one dollar per acre 
— and money was almost an unknown quantity, groceries and 
supplies being purchased by cypress pieux, Creole ponies, etc. 

The native settlers here lived in small houses built from 
logs or lumber split from the trees by their own hands, and a 
stove or window in the house was never heard of. A man 
that owned 500 acres of land was considered to be worth 
$250. 

But a wonderful change has taken place in five years, and 
a still more wonderful transformal ion will be seen in the next 
five years to come. These same people whom you saw living 
in houses with mud chimneys and board shutters for win- 
dows, many ot them to-day have modern residences, produc- 
tive farms under a high state of cultivation and supplied with 
all modern improved machinery, ride in their carriages, have 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 105 

money in the bank and yearly dispose of from one to four and 
five thousand dollars worth of products from their farms. 

, You ask: What has brought about this change, and what 
is it that will enhance the possession of these people and 
make them the envy of a continent in the next live years? 
AVhat is it that has raised the value of lands in and around 
Crowley from twelve and one-half cents to fifteen and twenty 
dollars per acre? We answer, the culture of rice. And why 
should the farmer of Acadia Parish who raises rice receive so 
much larger returns for his labor than the farmer of Dakota 
who raises wheat and oats? The question is answered, by the 
law of supply and demand. 

Why are diamonds so valuable? Because they are scarce 
and are produced in a very limited section of country. Rice 
also can only be produced in a limited area of the United 
States. Few diamond fields and few rice fields. The demand 
for this cereal is constantly on the increase, and will be for 
the next fifty years. Compared to wheat, oats, barley, beans, 
potatoes, meat, or any other staple article of food, rice at the 
present price is 33 J per cent, cheaper than any other food, 
and as its value as an article of food becomes known, so will 
its consumption and its demand increase. 

But never, until the Gulf stream changes its course and 
runs up the Mississippi river, will the extent of countr}^ in 
which it can be raised be extended, so we need never fear an 
overproduction of this cereal. 

Facts taken from the most carefully compiled statistics 
bear us out in saying that if every acre of land in the United 
States that will produce rice was planted with this cereal and 
an average crop raised and milled, with fair milling and ship- 
ping expenses added, and then the product placed on the 
markets of the United States on a basis of three dollars per 
barrel for rough rice, it would not be as much as we consume ; 
in other words, the United States can never supply its own 
demands. 

Now, when the consumption of this article doubles, does 
it not stand to reason that if the supply is not increased the 
article itself must increase in value, and at a corresponding 
rate the lauds that produce the rice will be enhanced in value? 
Hence we say that Acadia's lands are bound to keep increas- 
ing in value, and the man who buys these lands at from seven 



06 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

to twenty dollars per acre, their present price, has bought a 
gold mine that he knows not the value of. 

If lands in the State of Illinois that produce fifteen bush- 
els of wheat per acre, valued at f 1.00 per bushel, are worth 
$45 per acre, they have produced 33J per cent, of their val- 
ue. Then the lands of Acadia Parish that produce fifty dol- 
lars' worth of rice per acre are worth, according to the same 
figures, $150 per acre, instead of from seven to twenty; but 
this is the difference in farming in Acadia Parish and some 
of the Middle and Northern States. 

In the State of Ohio they raise wheat on lands that are 
worth from fifty to sixty dollars per acre, and get from twelve 
to fifteen dollars' worth of wheat, while we in Acadia raise 
rice on lands that are worth from fifteen to .fifty dollars, and 
get from fifty to sixty doUars'worth of rice. With one-fourth 
of the capital invested we get four times the returns. While 
they are frozen up six months in the year, eating up what 
they earned the other six months, we work the whole year 
round with no Iol^s of time, under the most genial skies and 
balmy climate known' to man. It is a fact that lands are 
worth whatever they will pay a reasonable rate of interest on 
after the expenses of raising the crop is taken off. 

The American people are not slow to take advantage of a 
good thing when they see it; neither are they slow in catch- 
ing the spirit of the times, and it has just dawned upon them 
that in these rice lands of Southwest Louisiana lies the great- 
est honanza in the way of agricultural lands on the American 
continent to-day. In no section of the United States can a 
man buy land and engage in farming with so small an outlay 
and reap such large and sure returns as here. In no section 
of the United States can the capitalist find so promising a 
field for the investment of his money as here. 

Men of capital and energy are needed to develop the won- 
derful resources and industries of this country. Men with 
business experience and energy are needed to carry out the 
good work already begun. Factories and manufacturing 
establishments are wanted to work up the raw material that 
is produced in abundance liere and will some day prove a 
mine of wealth to the party establishing such industries ; and, 
above all, farmers witli brains, muscle and money are needed 
to buy up and till our vacant lands, and they are coming to. 
Realizing that the earlier they come, the better chances they 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 107 

will have for invpstmeiits, they are coming from the North, 
the East, the West — coming faster than t'hey ever poured into 
any agricultural section before. 

As an index of how rapidly this country is filling up it is 
only necessary to say that five years ago there was hardly a 
farm fenced in in the parish. In the year 1889 Crowley 
shipped 12,000 barrels of rough rice, at an average value of 
three dollars per barrel, making $36,000, Of the year 1890 
we are uimble to furnish the exact amount, but it' was more 
than doubled. In 1891 Crowley shipped 80,000 barrels of 
rice, or 420 carloads, valued at $240,000. For the first four 
months of the shipping year of 1892 Crowley's shipments of 
rice were as follows; September, 4,999 barrels; October, 
36,925 ; November, 60,793 ; December, 53,859. Total num- 
ber of barrels shipped to January 1, 1893, 156,576, or 740 
cars. A conservative estimate places the balance of this 
year's crop still on hand and ready to be shipped at 100,000 
barrels, making a grand total of 1,240 cais, or 256,576 bar- 
rels. At an average of three dollars per barrel this would 
give the enormous sum of $769,728; and this from Crowley 
alone, which five years ago was an unbroken prairie. The 
town of Rayne, six miles east, has shipped about half as 
much. This wonderful increase in the rice industry is fully 
equaled by every other branch of l)usiness. 

The following careful and liberal estimate will show some- 
thing of the profits to be derived from rice culture : 

• Take, 160 acres of land, at say $15 $2 400 

House and stable '5OO 

55 barrels of rice seed at $3.. 165 

A hired man, say six months, at $20 120 

Two spans of mules and harness at $275 550 

Machinery an J wagon, say 250 

Feed for team 125 

Board for hired man, 6 months 72 

Fencing 250 

2,240 empty sacks for rice, at 10 cents 224 

Threshing, 2,240 sacks, at 10 cents 224 

Other expenses, threshing, etc 100 

Making a total cost for land, fencing, expenses, etc. ..$4,980. 

Now as to the results, 160 acres of rice at fiiteen barrels 
to the acre would be 2400 barrels, at $3.00 per barrel, this 
would be worth $7,200. This would leave the farmer, after 
paying for the land and fencing it, building his house and 
buying his team and machinery, paying for his seed, and all 
other expenses possible on a farm of thi^s size, $2,220 in clear 



Io8 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

money. This is not farming on paper but is actual results as 
shown hy hundreds of different men who have come here and 
engaged in this industry in the past five years. 

A few words in explanation of how rice is raised would 
not bo amiss. We know so many living in the North the 
words riee farming conveys tlie idea of living in a swamp or 
marsh; this is far from true, and could they see some of our 
rice plantations with rice growing in one field, and just across 
the fence, or pei'liaps the road, another field of cotton, sugar 
cane, corn, or perchance an orchard of peaches, figs or 
oranges, this idea would no longer exist. 

Rice is raised on any level land, the land is plowed and 
fitted as for wheat or any other small grain, after the rice is 
sown, then commences the work of leveling the land, which 
is done with team, and large plows having long mould-boards 
with wdiich the land is thrown up in ridges from one to two 
feet high all the way around the field ; this is done to hold 
the Waaler on the young rice while growing. In ordinary 
seasons the rainfall is sufficient for this purpose, but farmers 
usually provide against a drouth by storing up a supply of 
water in the gully, streams and ponds. When rice is fully 
grown and maturing, these levees are cut and the w^atei- allow- 
ed to run off, so land will become dry and hard by harvest. 
Rice is harvested with self-binding machines, and 
threshed with steam threshers, the same as other grain ; it is 
then sacked and shipped to the rice mills. Rice is always 
sold and handled by the barrel — 162 pounds makes a barrel 
of rice, From twelve to tw^enty barrels are usually raised on 
an acre ; the average price for the past four years has been 
$3.00 per barrel, oftentimes going as high as $4.50 to $5.00 ; 
thus it may be seen that an acre of rice will, under favorable 
conditions, produce from $35 to $80, say an average of $50. 
We have known a great many instances where men have raised 
twenty barrels to the acre and sold at $5.00 per barrel, thus 
producing $100 per acre, and that, too, where the land was 
valued at only $5.00 per acre ; but these cases are exceptions. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 109 

Freight and passenger receipts at Crowley, not including 
prepaid freight that was delivered at Crowley, or rice that 
was shipped away, was as follows : 

September $7,602.47 

October i 5,732.94 

November 5,571.71 

December 5,941..34 

$24,848.46 

If we add the freight on rice 78,288.00 

156,576 sacks shipped during these four months gives, 

not including prepaid lots $103,136 46 

Below we give some crop statistics of Acadia Parish for 
the year 1892: 

700,000 barrels rice, valued at $2.50 per barrel $1,750,000 

500 acres in sugar cane, making 1008 barrels of molasses, 

valued at 15,120 

410 hogsheads of sugar, valued at 3,075 

Cotton, 1,500 bales, valued at 67,.500 

Corn, 299.600 barrels, valued at.. 149 800 

Oats, 15,000 bushels, valued at 7.500 

Potatoes, 200,000 bushels, valued at .'. 10(1000 

Acadia Parish has a population of 15,000 people ; Crow- 
ley a population of 4,500. 

As we have said before, this wonderful advancement has 
nut been confined to rice culture alone ; the town of Crowley 
has kept even pace with the country surrounding it, and 
grown in five years from merely a thought in the minds of its 
promoters to a busy, thriving, bustling little city, that from 
its size, its l)eauty, its notoriety, and the volume of business 
it does, can well afford to be envied by towns five times its 
age. 

The rapid growth of Crowley, in fact the wonderful de- 
velopment oi Southwest Louisiana has been augmented by 
and is largely due to the efforts of Messrs. W. W. Duson & 
Bro. who founded the town, and have for the past five years 
heeu conducting one of the largest real estate businesses of 
any firm in the South. Contrary to the average real estate 
man, they have pursued an open, liberal policy in the man- 
agement of the growth of the town and parish; they are men 
of broad ideas and views, and consider nothing in the way of 
advancement too good for their town ; they have established 
a reputation for square and lionest dealing in every State in 
iJie Union. 



no SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

To the home seekers and capitalists we say, if you are 
contemplating a change in your location, we can recommend 
Acadia Parish, La., as a place where your brightest dreams 
and your most sanguine hopes will come nearer being fulfilled 
and realized than in any other spot on earth, and we can 
recommend the town of Crowley as one of the brightest and 
most progressive towns of the South to-day. Here you can 
find good public schools, churches, a college, and good society, 
a kind and intelligent people, made up largely of your own 
people from Northern and Western States, and you will come 
nearer getting a fair return for your labor and capital than in 
any place we know of. If you wish any information about 
the lands of Acadia Parish, or the many chances of investing 
money in the thriving town of Crowley, where every dollar 
that has been put in has doubled every year, write to W. W. 
Duson & Bro. They will tell you facts just as they exist; if 
you wish to go South they can get you as low railroad rates, 
cheaper board and better accommodations for less money than 
any one else. 

If you visit Southwest Louisiana, call on them and they 
will show you all over the country in good conveyances, free 
of charge, and make your stay in that beautiful country a 
pleasant one indeed; and if you invest in their real estate 
you will never regret it, and if you do not you cannot help 
but say that you saw the finest country on the American 
Continent, and that you met gentlemen, and were well treated. 

Respectfully, C. L. CRIPPEN. 

MIDLAND BRANCH RAILROAD. 

A great deal has been said and written about Southwestern 
Louisiana in general, and many localities have had particular 
attention bestowed upon them, but up to the present time, 
with all of the descriptions, and many good things that have 
been said of the State, and the southwestern portion in par- 
ticular, one of the most beautiful and most productive sections 
of the entire State has received little or no attention. We 
refer to the western portion of Acadia Parish, or those lands 
lying on either side of the "Midland Branch Railroad." 

This line of road is a feeder to the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road, and branches off from the main line at a point just one 
hundred and seventy-four miles west of New Orleans, and 
eight miles west of Crowley, the county seat of Acadia Parish. 




~:jj 



112 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Running north from this point a distance of three miles, it 
crosses the Plaquemine River on what is, at the present time, 
one of the Longest wooden bridges on the line of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad between New Orleans and San Praneisco, 
being 1,700 feet long. From the timber bordering this 
stream the road emerges into a beautiful prairie known as 
" Prairie Hayes," which extends in a northeasterly direction 
as far as the eye can reach. 

As the train emerges from this timber it is a pleasing 
sight that meets the traveler's eye. On the right of the road 
stretches this beautiful undulating prairie, dotted here and 
there by the homes of the prosperous settlers, and as we look 
at the evidences of prosperity on every hand, as is shown by 
the rapid improvements these people have made during their 
stay here, we have an index to the possibilities of this prairie. 
On the left, or west of the line, a distance of from two to four 
miles, runs the river DesCannes (or Bayou, as commonly 
called). This stream has a magnificent belt of timber run- 
ning its entire length on both sides, which is from one to 
three miles in width, and which forms a beautiful and fitting- 
background to a scene which is already enchanting. Among 
the timbers to be found bordering this stream are the Oak, 
Ash, Hickory, Gum, Cypress and Pine ; we mention these as 
being timber of the most commercial importance. At almost 
every point along tliis timber is offered excellent opportuni- 
ties for establishing sawmills for working up these timbers 
into wagons, plow beams, harrows, harvester frames, and in 
fact any kind of commercial commodity that requires timber 
of the best quality. After thoroughly examining this timber 
and testing its quality for manufacturing purposes and com- 
mercial use, one wonders why it is that the Southern wagon- 
maker sends to Michigan and Ohio and gets his wagon timber 
sawed out and shipped a distance of 1,200 miles to be set up 
into wagons and sold, possibly, to the same party who owns 
hundreds of acres of timber equally as good as any that ever 
grew in the North. Whoever can answer the question will 
probably have solved the problem of why the South raises the 
cotton for the United States and sends to Massachusetts for 
its cotton fabrics, when they should be made at home. 

The Midland Branch runs a distance of eighteen miles 
across this Prairie Hayes country, where nature has been so 
generous in the bestowal of her gifts, in the way of healthy 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. II3 

climate, beautiful scenery aud fertility of soil. The soil of 
this prairie is a rich dark loam underlaid with a heavy clay 
subsoil, which prevents any fertilizer applied from seeping 
through. It is entirely free from stone, easily broken up and 
cultivated — one span of mules, oxen or horses being all that 
is necessary to break the soil. These prairies are generally 
broken up in January or February, and an excellent crop 
raised the first season, either of sugar cane, rice, cotton, 
corn, oats, sweet and Irish potatoes and all kinds of vege- 
tables. 

At a distance of eighteen miles from the crossing of the 
Plaquemine River, the Midland Road again strikes the tim- 
ber, this time on the Bayou Mallet. This stream is a branch 
of the DesCanues River, and, like the DesCannes, it has along 
its borders an abundant supply of the best of timber, which at 
the crossing of the railroad is about three miles wide. Emerg- 
ing from the timber new beauties meet the eye, and the al- 
ready enthusiastic prospector, as he looks back at the mag- 
nificent forests, "God's first temples," still untouched by the 
hand of man, and then looks at the billowy, rolling prairie, 
covered with, its sea of grasses, the monotony in color of 
which is relieved by the many different colored flowers that 
are so lavishly scattered over the prairie, while he is being 
fanned by (he balmy zephyrs from the Gulf of Mexico, and 
inhaling the perfumes of the flowers from wood and prairie 
which are being wafted to him like the breeze from some far- 
off spice-laden land. 

A feeling of satisfaction conies over him as he exclaims, 
"Eureka ! " Here is the place for an ideal home ! Here is 
the place where we can escape the blighting frosts of a long 
and dreary winter, and which is a stranger to the deadly cy- 
clone. Possessing, as it does, all the natural beauties to sat- 
isfy any poet or artist, yet it is no dreamer's country ; al- 
ready the hum of industry can be heard in the land; al- 
ready the progressive yankee and the industrious and thrifty 
German are here, and these prairies, which are now covered 
by a luxuriant growth of native grasses and flowers, will soon 
be transformed into fields of sugar cane and ripening grain. 
The thick uudergjowth along these timber belts will soon 
give place to orchards of peaches, pears, oranges and figs; 
these prairies, that for the past ages have knowai no other 
nnlody than that of the lark or the mocking bird, will soon 



114 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

be pierced by the steam-whistle of the "Midland Branch," 
and the hum of the busy saw mill as it provides lumber for 
the buildings sure to be needed in this section in the near 
future. This prairie is known as Prairie Faquetique, an In- 
dian name given to it many years ago. Although twenty-five 
miles from any market, with no shipping facilities whatever, 
this section is quite thickly settled by people who could not 
resist its beauty when once seen. Some ten or twelve years 
ago quite a number of Germans located in this favored sec- 
tion. All of them are prosperous, and many of them have 
become wealthy. The natives of this section are a generous, 
hospitable, pastoral people, with but little ambition to better 
their condition. But as an evidence of what a man who has 
energy, pluck and some business ability about him can ac- 
complish in this section, hampered as it has been by being 
isolated from the markets of the world without transportation 
facilities, we mention the name of Gustav Fusilier, who lives 
on Faquetique Prairie and keeps a small country store. He 
began there five years ago as a peddler with a stock of $150, 
hauled his goods from Opelousas, a distance of twenty- five 
miles, and out of the profits has been increasing his business 
from year to year, until this man this past fall and winter 
hauled and shipped from Crowley and Opelousas 23,000 bar- 
rels of rice (the hauling costing him from twenty-five to forty 
cents per barrel), this rice alone bringing him the snug sum 
of $63,000. What Mr. Fusilier can accomplish in the way 
of success any man can achieve with the same amount of en- 
ergy and thrift. 

On this very prairie is where the success of rice-raising 
in Southwestern Louisiana was first demonstrated. Here you 
will find the first field of rice that ever was planted in South- 
western Louisiana, some seventeen years ago, and has been 
in continuous cultivation ever since, without fertilizing, and 
last year gave the largest yield of any in the seventeen years. 
To be sure, the field was small, but large enough to demon- 
strate the lasting qualities of the land. Four miles north of 
where the Midland Road crosses the Bayou Mallet, and just 
twenty-five miles from the Southern Pacific mam line, is the 
present terminus of the road, and here will be established a 
new and thriving town as soo^i as the rails have been laid to 
this point, which will not bo latter than July 1, 1894. The 
name of this new town has already been selected and is to be 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC II5 

"Eunice." The fact that the lajiDg out and biiildino- ot this 
town will be under the personal supervision and management 
of ex-Senator C. C. Duson and his brother, W. W. Duson, the 
founders and promoters of Crowley, La., is sufficient evidence 
and assurance of its success. The grading on this line is all 
completed, the bridges are mostly built and track-laying is 
progressing as rapidly as possible. 

On both sides of this road, the entire distance of twenty- 
five miles, the Pacific Investment Company have many fine 
large tracts of land suitable for the culture of cane, rice, cot- 
ton, corn or for other general farming purposes, at reasonable 
prices and on the most favorable terms to actual settlers. 
They own, along this line of road, some 50,000 acres, which 
may be divided up as follows : 25,000 acres of perfectly flat, 
level rice lauds that can easily be flooded from the natural 
rainfall and by damming up the many small gullies, which 
wall act as a drain for the surplus water when it is desired to 
drain the lands when the crops are ready for harvesting; 10,- 
000 acres of high, dry and rolling sugar lands that are also 
suitable for corn, cotton or general farming purposes ; 5,000 
acres of fruit and garden truck lands, the soil of which is of 
a lighter, quicker or more sandy nature than those lands 
suitable for rice culture; 10,000 acres of these valuable tim- 
ber lands, on which can be found timber of every variety 
known in the South — timber for fencing purposes, for all 
kinds of hard and soft-wood lumber, and for any and all 
manufacturing purposes. These lands range in prices from 
$7 to $12 per acre and can be purchased in tracts of any size 
from 40 to 1,000 acres, giving a person as much prairie and 
as much w^oodland on his farm as he may w^ant. This is made 
possible on account of the timber lying en both sides of the 
streams and the prairies between. These lands were pur- 
chased by this Company for the purpose of disposing o( them 
to actual settlers at reasonable prices, and to keep them from 
falling into the hands of speculators who would neither sell 
or improve them, it being their desire to have these lands 
settled up at once by prosperous farmers and planters, and 
thus insure a paying business for the "Midland Branch," in 
preference to holding them for the large increase in value, 
which this new outlet will surely give them. 

If a man wishes to engage in the culture of rice, the crop 
that has made that section around Crowley, La., famous all 
over the United States, here are lands suited to his needs, on 



Il6 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

wliich be can laise from twelve to twenty barrels per acre, 
the average price for which for" the last five years, has been 
$3 per barrel, and is raised at the same cost of wheat in the 
North. With plenty of water for irrigating purposes which 
can be pumped from the inexhaustible streams which traverse 
this section, with a clay sub-soil that prevents the water 
from being absorbed by the land or seeping through his 
levees. 

If he wishes to raise sugar cane, here are sugar lands that 
will produce from twenty to thirty tons per acre, worth $4 
per ton at the station. If he wishes to engage in fruit cul- 
ture, these lands are the natural home for the peach, the fig 
and the plum, while pears, oranges, nectarines, pomegranates 
and all the smaller fruits, such as grapes, blackberries, rasp- 
berries and strawberries grow to their highest state of perfec- 
tion with proper cultivation. If you are interested in finding 
II location v/here agricultural pursuits are rewarded beyond 
the most sanguine expectations, if you wish to find a home 
in a new, and yet an old country, where nature has exhausted 
herself in the bestowal of her gifts, a country of easy condi- 
tions and circumstances where every day's toil will bring 
forth its reward, we know of no better investment you could 
make than a trip over the Southern Pacific and Midland 
Branch Railroads and investigate these lands for yourself. 
Then you could assure yourself of the healthfulness of this 
climate, the fertility of the soil of these lands, the abundant 
supply of pure wster and the indescribable charms of these 
two gems of this south land of ours, Prairie "Hayes" and 
"Faquetique." 

Any inquiries regarding these lands will be cheerfully an- 
swered and all information given by addressing either Judge 
J. G. Parkerson, Lafayette, La.; C. C. Duson, Opelousas, La.; 
S. L Carey, Jennings, La., or C. C. Carey, Kansas City, Mo. 

LA FAYETTE, LA. 

"La Fayette, La., is situated on the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, 144 miles west of Noav Orleans, and makes an im- 
portant division of that gigantic railway trunk line. Con- 
nection is here made witli what is known as tlie "Alexandria 
Tap," a feeder of the Southern Pacific System that communi- 
cates with the Texas & Pacific Railroad at Cheney ville. La. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 



117 



The Southern Pacific Company has located at this point 
an extensive railroad yard, as also one of its principal round- 
houses, besides a workshop, a capacious freight depot, a 
storehouse and other minor buildings and conveniences; all 
of which gives to La Fayette more than ordinary importance 
as a railroad center, present and prospective. 

The subject of this article is the county seat of La Fay- 
ette Parish, the acknowledged garden spot of Southwestern 
Louisiana. Previous to 1880, when the Morgan Railroad 
(now forming a division of the grand Southern Pacific Rail- 
way System) was constructed through this country, the town 
of La Fayette, with its handful of population, remained prac- 
tically unknown to the outside world. However, the wonder- 
ful natural resources of the country tributary to La Fayette 
were soon effectually stimulated and developed under the 
beneficial influence of the railroad until it has gained its 
present creditable and enviable position and importance in 
the business world, without having had at any time a single 
agency or circumstance to "boom" it. 

The population of La Fayette now numbers 3,000 souls, 
and a continuation of the natural and healthy growth that 
has characterized the progress of this little city in the past 
is assured for the iuture. 

Among a large number of business houses and other in- 
stitutions that would do credit to a community of greater pre- 
tensions than L:i Fayette may be mentioned a substantial and 
attractive brick and iron bank, regularly chartered aod doing 
a prosperous business ; the handsome and capacious railroad 
hotel, operated by the Crescent News & Hotel Co., that jnstly 
enjoys the reputation of being one of the very best houses of 
its kind in the state ; a commodious and well-appointed high 
school building, awaiting completion, to be launched in the 
good work of education ; Mount Carmel Convent, a Catholic 
educational institution, occupying a whole square of grouiui, 
arranged and distributed so as to make it one of the attrac- 
tions of the place ; substantial and imposing public buildings. 
Church edifices are ov^ned by the following denominations : 
Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, (Episcopalians worship in 
this church), Israelites. The negroes worship in separate 
churches of their own. La Fayette also possesses several 
mercantile establishments doing a business of from $50,000 
to $100,000 a year, and three exiensive lumber yards. The 



Il8 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

La Tayette Advertiser, one of the oldest newspapers in the 
South, was purchased in the beginning of this year by a syn- 
dicate of home business men and occupies the front rank in 
liberal and progressive journalism. 

Three of the largest manufacturing concerns of agricul- 
tural implements in the United States (Osborne, McCormick, 
Deering), recognizing the value and importance of La Fay- 
ette as a distributing point for Southwestern Louisiana, have 
established general agencies or depots here. The- Waters- 
Pierce Oil Co., for the same reason, \\ni>, had erected ar oil 
depot at this place. 

Of the fertility and general desirability of the lands of 
the Parish of La Fayette too much can not be said, and the 
climate and health of the country is most excellent. The soil 
is extremely rich, as a rule, and has remarkable depth. The 
principal products of the country are cane, cotton, rice, corn 
and potatoes (sweet and Irish). Many other things could 
be profitably raised. Jute, ramie, barley, and tobacco grow 
well here, as also such varieties of the domestic grasses as 
clover, red- top, millet, alfalfa and Japan clover. All of the 
esculents grow to perfection and could be cultivated with 
profit if truck farming were engaged in to a great enough ex- 
tent to justify the railroads in making special preparations 
for handling this particular line of traffic. Such fruits as 
peaches, pears, plums, apricots, figs, etc., do well, and a vari- 
ety of berries grow wild in abundance. 

A business men's association has recently been or- 
ganized in La Fayette for fuithering manufacturing and 
other enterprises and advance the general condition of the 
country. One of the first undertakings of this association 
will be to secure the building of a railroad from La Fayette 
to Abbeville, La., and from thence to deep w^ater in Vermil- 
lion Bay. Forming a part of this railroad project, also, is the 
erection of two important manufacturing industries, viz., a 
central sugar refinery and a cotton factory that shall employ 
no less than 150 operatives, and to this end a bonus of $10,- 
000 and $20,000, respectively, will be offered for the estab- 
lishment of these enterprises. 

La Fayette offers an excellent opening for an ice factory, 
a furniture factory, and a sash, door and blind factory. Out- 
side capital would find ready and profitable investment here 
and a hearty welcome. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



119 



Will the loss of tlie bounty ou sugar and the duty on rice 
and sugar ruin these industries? 

Every industry stands best on its own merits, and "ne- 
cessity is the mother of invention." The cost of growing 
both cane and rice has been lessened in the past two years to 
correspond with the losses sustained, and to-day there is a 
wide margin of profit in both. In rice, the King Harvester 
and Binder does double the work of the old harvesters suc- 
cessfully and cuts ten feet instead of five; and still further, 
the same machine will be used as a header, materially lessen- 
ing the cost and labor of the harvest. 

The cost of growing an acre of cane is put m this 
hook at $44, May, 1893, and April 1898, it can safely be 
placed at $25. These improvements and inventions place 
Southwestern Louisiana beyond all danger of loss by rivals, 
competition or ordinary contingencies. So you can safely 
put your labor and capital in either business and live in the 
best pleasure and health resort in America, 

JEANERETTE, LA. 

S. L. Cary, Esq. 

Dear Sh^ : — ^The second largest town in the parish of 
Iberia is situated on the Bayou Teche and also on the South- 
ern Pacific Railroad, nearly equi-distant between New Orleans 
and Lake Charles. It has a population of 2,000. Twelve 
miles to the west is the parish seat. New Iberia, and fourteen 
miles east is the parish seat of St. Mary's County, Franklin. 
It is also surrounded by numerous small towns and villages 
adjacent. A fine line of passenger and freight steamers ply 
regularly to New Orleans, and the Southern Pacific Railroad 
in connection has several steamers of its own plying to Mor- 
gan City, there connecting with the Gulf ports. The place is 
also connected by telephone with all surrounding towns and 
sugar refineries, being situated iji the heart of the sugar belt, 
and only eight miles direct to the Gulf of Mexico. During 
the grinding season the whistles of twenty-seven sugar houses 
and refineries can be heard any morning. Within the town 
the large Vaufrey Refinery is situated, producing this year 
(1892) nearly 3,000,000 pounds of sugar, and in sight of the 
town are three other large refineries of Linden, Right Way and 
Union, producing upwards of another 4,000,000 pounds. Out- 
side of the cities of New Orleans and Shreveport, we have the 



120 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

finest and largest foundry in the State, and ice works. There 
is more freight handled here than any other place in propor- 
tion in the State. The railroad company, with its already hirge 
depot, was compelled to put up another addition of 100 feet 
to handle its fast-increasing business. It has three churches, 
Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian; the former predomi- 
nates. Two schools, one convent and public schools, a sys- 
tem of water works, a fine fire department, steamer, hose reels, 
hook and ladder companies with good engine building, neat 
little opera house, and good markets. What this place and 
surrounding country needs js immigration. A national bank 
would be quite a necessity, also a newspaper and job printing 
establishment, and it would be a good opening for wood work- 
ing machinery. It has two large saw and shingle mills and 
cooperage works. ^ ^ ^^^^^ 

VERMILLION PARISH. 

■THE MOST -WONDERFUL AGRICULTURAL PARISH OF LOUISIANA. PRODUCING 

ABUNDANTLY THE FOUR GREAT STAPLES OF CANE, CORN, COTTON 

AND RICE. AN IDEAL PARISH FOR PLANTING AND 

RAISING DIVERSIFIED CROPS." 

Seldom in the career of man's lile does he find an abode 
that fulfills all the functions of his existence. It is either too 
hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, too high or too low, or 
. some incentive that prompts him to leave his present surround- 
ings to look for more inviting fields, to better his condition in 
life, and to provide more abundantly for those he has to pro- 
vide for. To him, whoever he may bo, we point him to Ver- 
million Parish to fi.nd his ideal of an earthly habitation. In 
it he will not be confronted by any of the objections or 
hindrances above mentioned, but will find a country that gains 
the admiration of all who examine into its resources. We 
quote from a letter written by a well posted gentleman, to 
The Neio Orleans Picayune^ in which he compared Ver- 
million Parish to other Parishes in the stale. He saj's ; 

'•The brightest, the most realistic and fadeless dream, born 
of youthful hope and faith, notwithstanding Dr. Johnsons 
"Rasselas," to the contrary, may be concreted and realized 
in Vermillion Parish, when organized and directed by the 
force of intelligent energy, without reference to what chan- 
nels mature age would seek its complete and perfect consum- 
mation. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 121 

"The field of realization is so ample and varied that 
whether in the multiplied paths of southern agriculture — to 
include equal results in corn, cane, cotton and rice as the 
great staples of commercial life, or in the immense and fruit- 
ful walks of pastoral life, as represented in all grades and 
classes of live stock-raising and breeding, or devoted to truck- 
farming and fruit-growing of an endless variety, including 
from the smallest berries to the most luscious peaches, pears, 
quinces, apricots and oranges, or if the dream be in the direc- 
iion of game and piscatoral pleasures and mode of living, 
then, indeed, will he have found his paradise; or if it be in 
merchandising, manufacturing, practicing of law, medicine, 
teaching or in the pulpit, or in the artisan's line, or in the 
field of speculation, for quick, brilliant and substantial re- 
turns; in all of these varied avenues of fortune making, Ver- 
million offers the most tempting and fairest promises, with an 
absolute certainity of no disappointments, to those who seek 
and settle within her fertile borders. 

"If it be health and comfort as secured by soft, balmy gulf 
breezes, mild winters and delightfully cool summers whicli he 
seeks, they can be had to his heart's content. 

^'If his dream be of an epicurean character, then can he 
feast on bll that is early and late which garden culture af- 
fords, or the choicest fish, oysters, shrimps or ducks, papa- 
bots, snipe, partridges, appetizing and refreshing fruits and 
berries of great variety and of almost perpetual supply. 

"If the dreamer would engage in vast schemes of develop- 
ment and colonization, enlarging population, building factor- 
ies for sugar- making, rice -cleaning, cotton seed oil mills and 
cotton factories, ice factories, brick-making, planing and 
dressing lumber, then indeed, would there be a colossal op- 
opportunity for his dash, his intelligence and his energy, to 
bring him a harvest of unimaginable results. 

"The great question of commercial and home-made fertili- 
zers has long since been settled in this parish by nature's 
lavish supply in the natural soil of all the elements which 
germinate agricultural and horticultural life and stimulate it 
in to its fullest development. No expense and care is needed 
in this line. 

"The further and possibly greater question of a diversified 
agriculture is most perfectly and amply exemplified by Ver- 
million's four staple crops, cane, corn, cotton and rice, neither 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 123 

doininatiiig and overshadowing the other, and each having a 
ready cash market io: its annual yield. 

"The third and possibly the greatest of the entire agricul- 
tural problems of the day, 'small farmers doing their own 
work,' is typified in Vermillion better than anywhere in 
Louisiana. This is made plainer by the census returns of 
1880y in which the Louisiana average for farm improvements 
was nearly 57 acres to the farm, while in Vermillion it was 
only 32| acres to each farm, as at that time the entire popu- 
lation, white and colored, was only 8,788, though there were 
1,024 farms with an improved acreage (not cultivated) of 
33,347. 

"As the population, like vegetation, here is prolific, this 
w^ould probably represent nearly eight to the family, parents 
and six children, or a farm to each family. The many merits 
of this large and fertile parish are unknown to most of our 
home people, as well as those of other states, who are seek- 
ing a new home and will require frequent efforts through the 
press to throw the search-light of detailed investigation on 
its many interests to bring the parish to the front as one of 
Southwestern Louisiana's leading interests. 

"The parish possesses every advantage any other section 
of Louisiana enjoys, with not one of the ills or disadvantages 
ot any other portion of the State, and must ere long be the 
most prosperous and happy section of our fair and fertile 
country." 

Vermilion Parish, the banner parish of Louisiana, is 
located in the extreme Southern portion of the state in the 
section of country generally termed Southwest Louisiana. It 
has a front of seventy miles on the Gulf of Mexico and Ver- 
milion Bay. It has a rich and fertile soil consisting of a grey 
sandy loam on the rivers and bayous and a black, mellow, 
sandy loam on the praries. Vermilion is a semi-prairie 
patish— fine bodies of timber skirt the streams and the Gulf 
coast averaging in width from two to five miles, the remainder 
of the parish prairie. Vermilion is almost self-supporting and 
a great many of the necessaries of life are raised within its 
borders. We will cite a few products of the parish to the 
reader, and then leave him to be judge. There are raised in 
Vermilion us a food and money making product : Corn, rice, 
sugar, molasses, oats, rye, peanuts, peas, potatoes, cotton, 
jute, tobocco, ramie, indigo, alfalfa, clover, hay, melons, 



124 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

peaches, pears, plums, persimmons, apricots, nectarines, figs, 
grapes, oranges, lemons, pecans, walnuts, blackberries, dew- 
berries, strawberries; vegetables of all kinds; horses, cattle, 
hogs, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. The 
prairies abound in game and the streams teem with fish. 
Timber is plentiful consisting of pine, oak, cypress, hickory, 
ash, gum and magnolia. The Eastern part of the parish con- 
tains a deposit of rock salt that is inexhaustible. 

The parish is steadily climbing to the top of the ladder 
in development, the Western part of the parish, however, is 
more progressive than the Central or Eastern part, which is 
due mostly to the population. From Abbeville, the parish 
seat, going West can be seen numbers of rich well improved 
farms owned and operated by progressive and prosperous 
Western men, who have been driven by cold from their homes 
in the West, and attracted here by the beautiful country 
backed up by the easiness and simplicity of earning a liveli- 
hood. Ten years ago this same country, that is now blossom- 
ing like a rose, was a vast unimproved and almost worthless 
prairie. But the wave of progress struck it and to-day the 
evidence of the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of doll- 
ars Is to be seen on every hand. Large irrigating canals, 
pumping plants, substantial dwellings, graded roads, fine 
stock and up to date farming machinery has taken the place 
of the open prairie, the creole pony and the home made plow 
stock. If the reader will bear with us we will enumerate a 
few of the improvements; Starting at Abbeville on the Ver- 
milion river we first find the irrigating canal and magnificent 
pumping station of Mr. R. H Mills. This canal is about three 
and one-half miles long and forty feet wide. It runs through 
one of the finest rice sections in the state and will irrigate 
some ten thousand acres of land. Next comes the Hall- 
Slutz Irrigating Canal located on Vermilion river ten miles 
South of Abbeville. This canal is about seven miles long and 
forty feet wide and irrigates five thousand acres of rice. 
Then we will look West about twenty-five miles, and we find 
the Vermilion Development Company with their twenty-five 
or thirty miles of irrigating canals, irrigating some twenty- 
five thousand acres of rice. These canals are the largest in 
the parish being one hundred feet wide. This company has 
two pumping stations. At one they operate six fifteen-inch 
pumps and at the other they operate four thirty-six-inch and 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 125 

two eigliteen-iiieh pumps, this latter station discharges two 
hundred and fifty thousand gallons of water per minute. 
Still further West ou Lake Arthur we find numerous canals 
and pumping plants that furnish water to irrigate thousands 
of acres of land. There are other canals projected— the most 
important of which is the S. S, Hunter Canal which is to be 
built from the Vermilion river and to run West some twenty 
miles. This canal is to be built in time to furnish water for 
the 1900 rice crop. It is to be two hundred feet wide, and 
will have a capacity of irrigating one hundred thousand acres 
of land. The survey and preliminary work has been finished 
and the work of constructing the leeves will be started at an 
early date. 

ABBEVILLE. 

Abbeville, the parish seat, is situated on the East bank 
of the Vermilion river about twenty-five miles from the Ver- 
milion Bay. The town contains 2,000 inhabitants, and is a 
thrifty and growing town where a large volunin of business is 
transacted. Being located in the midst of a most fertile farm- 
ing country with a large territory to draw from its trade and 
advantages are second to none of double its size in the state. 
It has both railroad and water facilities for shipping. The 
Southern Pacific Railroad taps Abbeville with the I, & V., 
branch of that huge system which connects with a regular 
line of steamers plyiug the Vermilion. Abbeville has church 
and school advantages and many of the secret orders have 
organizations here. 

QUEYDAN, 

Gneydan, one of the most thriving towns in the state, is 
situated about 25 miles West of Abbeville and about 18 miles 
Southwest of Crowley in Vermilion Parish. It is now three 
years old, having been founded three years ago by Mr. J. P. 
Gueydan and named for that gentleman. Its growth has 
rapidly increased at all seasons of the year since it wag first 
laid out, and being located in the heart of the finest rice 
country in the United States and surrounded by large irriga- 
ting rice canals its future cannot be comprehended. It 
counts 14 business houses including a hardware and imple- 
ment store and feed store; it has two hotels, two large rice 
warehouses and two lumber yards. A company has been 
formed there to erect a $10,000 rice mill. The town has 
about 500 inhabitants and rapidly growing, having doubled 



126 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

its population within the last twelve months. It has a high 
school and offers splendid educational advantages. The Paci- 
fic Railroad taps Gueydan with a branch running out from 
Crowley, La. The town of Gueydan and the country sur- 
rounding is settled up by thrifty Northern and Western people, 
who have greatly bettered their condition by coming here. 

The health of Vermilion parish is Al, the water supply is 
quite sufficient for stock raising purposes and the rain fall 
which is about 60 inches a year, is quite adequate for general 
farming purposes. We invite all who wish to better their 
condition financially to come to Vermilion. For further in- 
formation concerning this country, write to D. L. McPherson, 
Abbeville, La. 

WATER. 

Is the foundation of agriculture. Southwestern Louisiana has 
an abundant rainfall — sixty inches — many lakes, bayous and 
rivers, and the earth under our feet is all full of water (at a 
depth of twenty feet). The earth yields a bountiful supply of 
pure water for family and stock. At sixty to eighty feet 
enough is found to supply our railroad engines at stations, 
and 200 feet through clay will likely give enough to flood 
each farm in Southwestern Louisiana With this assurance 
rice would be as sure a crop as cane, which has not failed 
in 100 years. 

VALUE AND PRICE OF LAND. 

In Southwestern Louisiana, the value, and price of land 
has borne no proper comparison. Up to .this date the United 
States and the State have both large bodies of laud to be 
given as homesteads, and the State land being held at the 
nominal price of 12 J to 75 cents per acre has, to a large ex- 
tent, governed prices. Now the prairie lands are all in second 
hands, timber lands only remaining with the Government. 
Notwithstanding these conditions, prairie lands have ad- 
vanced in price to an average of $8 per acre, uninipro\ed, 
and $12 per acre, improved, with a range of $5 to $100 per 
acre, dependent upon location and condition. These prices 
are believed to be lower, considering climate, products and 
general conditions, than elsewhere, and must, in the very 
nature of things, go much higher in the immediate future. 
Grass, fruit, sugar, rice and products of the temperate and 
semi-tropical climates, an abundant rainfall, early and late 



ON LINF OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC- 1 27 

seasons, sea board markets by rail and water, healthfiilness, 
volume of timber, enterprise and prosperty of its people — all 
point to much higher prices for real estate. It requires but a 
glance to see that present prices are far below the value. 
First, the percentage they will pay (other things being equal) 
should determine the price. Lands paying $5 net per acre 
the price would be $100 per acre. 

In England Government securities pay two per cent, at 
par or <£2 per ^100; land paying £i per acre brings j£'100 
and the ownership of land carries the higher position. The 
landlord is the aristocrat of Europe ; but in America govern- 
ment bonds at three per cent, are par, while lands in some 
States paying $5 bring $100 and in other States the price is 
littlb different from the annual rental Cominir from a State 
where land, selling at $100 per acre rented for $4 to $5, just 
imagine the feelings of a man, v/ho in Southwest Louisiana 
ten years ago was offered land ac 12 J cents to $L25 per acre 
that grew $20 to $100 per acre in ric3 and $50 to $100 in 
sugar, at a profit of $10 to $50. It fairly took a man's breath 
and the effect in many cases was just the reverse of the 
natural. Do you wonder that the first question was: "What's 
the matter?" That question is in part answered by the great 
prosperity of the people and by enhanced prices, and will be 
fully answered when these lands take their proper position in 
price with other countries. 

DOUBLE IRRIGATION. 

This book would be incomplete without a partial list of 
the canals and pumping plants completed and under way. 

These plants were begun at Crowley and are extending 
west to cover the wliole Prairie Region. The point of greatest 
activity now is at and near Jennings. 

Taking water from the Mermentau river. Lake Arthur, 
Lacasine, Bayou Chene, and Bayou Nez Pique. There are 
over sixty such plants. A brief description of a few will 
give a correct idea of all. 

The idea of irrigating by canals and deep wells (170 to 
200 feet) a country of heavy rainfall, level and near the gulf 
coast could only arise from the necessity of flooding the 
principal crop, rice. Still there is no doubt that the yield of 
most crops would be doubled l>y artificial or double irrigation. 
The subject is unique. Double irrigation being impossible in 



128 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

the arid region aud impracticable elsewhere. Anywhere 
under southern skies rolling lands are liable to drouth and 
very many to wash. Our level Prairie Region holds the 
moisture and fertility, being clay soil and sub-soil, and can 
be bought for less money than it takes to clear timber away 
or to restore washed fields, if, indeed, that can be done. I 
know of no other country having such great advantages, and 
at the same time low prices for real estate. This we owe to 
the circumstance of a stigma early cast upon the country as 
an " unhealthy swamp, the home of barbarians, alligators and 
fevers." This is entirely incorrect. But we should not 
complain of what has been to us a great advantage. There 
is no other advantage equal to an abundant supply of water. 
It is here in earth, in skies, in river, lake, bayou and now in 
canals. 



WHICH IS BEST? 



CiiOQK Pctl^O averages twenty tons per acre. Averages 
Oll|[9r UdOu 200 pounds of sugar per ton. Costs the 

farmer $40 per acre. Costs $2 per ton of Cane. Costs $2 pei 
ton to manufacture. Then one ton of cane costs to grow and 
manufacture $4, and gives the manufacturer 160 to 200 
pounds of sugar, depending upon the quality of the machin- 
ery and intelligence of the laborer. Present price of sugar 
on plantation three to four cents. 

Q* gives an average of forty bushels per acre. Costs an 

nibC average of $10 per acre Sells at a little more than 
wheat and gives an average crop of four times as much. 

W host; U3!S BflU Lorn $7 per acre; average 

value of crop $5 to $10 per acre. 

has an abundant rainfall — water is the foun- 
dation of all agriculture. Has not lost a 
general field crop in 100 years — seed time and harvest last 
all the year. Offers health to the sick, wealth to the poor, an 
easy living to the over-worked people of severe climates. 
Offers good timber lands at 75 cents per acre; good prairie 
lands can be bought on terms at $5 to $10; good rice lands 
at $5 to $15; sugar lands at $10 to $50, orange lands 
at $5 to $50. Grows the finest qualities of oranges on cheap 
lands; no irrigation necessary. Season of ripening October 
to February. Has the first thirty days of the market — worth 
all the rest of the year. 

" Go West, young man," means to unify your crops. 

" Go South, young man," means to diversify your crops 

When the great Northwest and the silver mines all forsake 
you, then Louisiana will take you up. 

For further information, books, maps, circulars, and ratee 
of transportation, ajjply to 

C. C. GARY, S. L. GARY, 

NORTHWESTERN PASSENGER *nd EMIGRATION AQEI.T. EMIGRATION AGENT, 

EXOHANGE Bu'LDiNQ, KANSAS CITY. MO- JENNINGS) LA. 



Are You Thinking of Going 



TO. 



CALIFORNIA, 

Mexico, Texas or Arizona? 



>-——< 



The Southern Pacific Co. 

(SUNSET ROUTE.) 

OFFERS THE >''^7m^\ ^'^ 

T.DPrr S^^ New Orleans. 

UIKCV^I IH SUNSET \01 Tourist 



MEANS OF Vr ^ ^ / V Car7'"^ 

REACHING THESE X^,S^^^^y ThrougTwithout 

SECTIONS ^Crirl^^ Change. 

Best First and Second Class Service 



TO 



Los Angeles, San Francisco, and points in 

Louisiana, Texas, Arizona 

and New Mexico 



For maps, time tables, and further information pertaining to rates, 
route and service, apply to 

S. F. B. MORSE, EDWIN HAWLEY, 

Asst, Pass'rTraffic Mgr., Ass't Geu'l Traffic Mg'r, 

Houston, Tex. 349 Broadway, 

New York. 

L J. PARKS, W. G. NEIMYER, 

Gen. Pass. & Tkt. Agt., Ceu'l Westtrii Agent, 

Houston, Tex. Chicago, Ills. 



IINDEX, 



Page, 

Introduction, 1-2 

Southwest Louisiana up to date, 3 

Southwest Louisiana's Wonderful Development, - - - 7 

Present Outlook, Southwest Louisiana, - - - - 14 

Rice — Does it pay ? 20 

Is there a Limit ? 24 

Canals and Pumping Plants, 28 

A Model Plantation, 29 

Rice Growing, - - - - 33 

Rice Culture in the South, 38 

A Few "Rice Pointers, 49 

Rice in the Phillipines, 52 

A Big Farm, 54 

The Value of Wells, 61 

Wells for Irrigating, 63 

Mexican Strawberries, 68 

Paradise for the Immigrant, 68 

Truck Farming, 73 

Weather Service, 74 

Why They Never Feel the Cold, 78 

Health, Water, Schools, etc., - - - - - - 79 

Speech of Secretary of Agriculture, Wilson, ... 81 

Prof. W. C. Stubbs, 86 

Machinery, 88 

We Told You So, 89 

A Remarkable Fact, 93 

Cotton, 95 

Lake Charles, 96 

Welsh, 98 

Jennings, 100 

Gueydan, - - 102 

Acadia Parish, - - - - 104 

Midland Branch R. R., - no 

Lafayette, 116 

Jeanerette, " -119 

Vermillion Parish, 120 

Value and Price of Land, 126 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 133 

TEXAS LANDS! 



J. S. DAUGHERTY, 

ORGANIZER AND MEMBER OF "THE BEAUMONT OIL EXCHANGE." 
Refer to any Texas Bank or Banker. 



, HOUSTON, . 
OPPiCES: ] BEAUMONT, i texas, 
' RICHMOND, ^ 



Have ■bought, sold and located millions of acres of land in differ- 
ent portior^s of TEXAS, and if you wisli to buy or sell Lands in 
any part of Texas, I am in position to serve you. 

RICB LrAIVDS 

If you wish to engage in Rice Culture, send for my Pamphlet giving 
details as to mode of cultivation, money required, and results obtained 

01 U UAINDS 

Before investing, write me, enclosing Post Office Order for $25, and state 
the amount which you wish to invest, and I will furnish you my opinion as to 
how best to invest; or if you have invested, will advise you whether to hold 
or sell. To enable me to intelligently advise my clients, I am having the 
property owned by each Company located as fast as I can, and abstract of 
titles to their lands made, so as to be able to determine whether or not they 
are good— some 1 know now have disputed titles, and it is important to avoid 
such Companies — or, if you have already invested in them, to sell before the 
public in general becomes aware of the true situation. 

I own stock in no Oil Company, to bias my judgment. I believe that 
for one to invest in an industry, and lose money, damages the industry and 
the State at large; and will use my best endeavors to protect the interests of, 
and make money for those who entrust their busmess to me. 



Post Office Box 71, HOUSTON, TEXAS. 

" 14, BEAUMONT, TEXAS. 
" B, RICHMOND, TEXAS. 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 




ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 



135 









GAAIl-SCOTT OUTFIT OF ABBOTT BROS., CROWLEY, LA., WHO AV-V. AMONG THE 
LARGEST KICK GROWERS IX THE STATE. 

"QUEEN OF THE RICE FIELD" 

More sold in Louisiana and Texas last year than all other threshers combined ! 

WERE FIRST IN THE RICE FIELD! 

Perfectly adapted to Threshing the several kinds of Rice in all conditions! 
The least Cracking of the Eice grain 
and the Greatest Capacity! 

Our Rice Self- Feeder and "Wind Stacker are 
especially built for handling KICE. 




GAAR-SCOTT ENGINES— Plain and Traction 

LEAD ALL OTHERS IN THE RICE COUNTRY 
FOR PUMPING AND THRESHING. 

Our Special Rice Thresher Circular is sent Frte, on request. 

SCOTT &, CO., 

Factory : Richmond, Ind. Rice Field Branch : Crowley, La. 

We have just finished a large Warehouse at Crowley, La., where we carry a 
full liae 01 Threshing Machinery. We Invite you to call. 




A BIG SETTING JUST UNisllJiD iJV Til. (.AGNi-AL fc G A A li-.'-i, UTT UIG, < iC(.WLK\, 



136 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



THE RICE FIELDS 
OF LOUISIANA 

Are best reached through New Orleans 
by through cars of the 




Double Daily Trains of Through 
Coaches and Pullman Drawing Room 
Sleeping Cars between 

Chicago, 
St. LfOUis, 
Loiiis'ville and 
Cincinnati; and 



IVashville, 

Birmingliam, 

A\ot>iIe, 

•Jad^sonville, 

Pensacola, 

INew Orleans and 

Gulf GoBLst Roints. 



DINING CAR SERVICE 

On Through Day Trains Between 
New Orleans and Birmingham. 
Double Daily Trains carrying through 
coaches and Pullman Sleeping Cars 
between Memphis and Louisville and 
Cincinnati. 

The Finest and Fastest Service 

IN THE SOUTH. 



C. B. COMPTON, 

Trahic Manager, 



Louisville, Ky. 



C. L. STONE, 
Oea'l Passenger Ageat, 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



137 



COOK'S 
FLAKED RICE 



Is Louisiana and Texas Rice which has been 
thoroughly and scientifically cooked so that it' s 
ready to eat as a brealrfast food without any 
cooking whatever by simply pouring on a 
little boiling salted water, only to soften and 
heat the flakes. See directions, page 5 J, in 
Rice Cook Book. 



Ji Delicious 

BreaKfast Dl$b 

Rccds J1bso!utc1y 
Do Cooktn::;. 




Break'® 



w 



"Qood for Baby 
Coo.*' 
Saves many 
Precious Cives* 



EASffiST FOOD TO DIGEST. 
New Born Infants : 

One cup of Cook's Flaked Rice, one quart water, boil ten 
minutes, add a pint of milk, pinch of salt, and a very little 
sugar, and strain. 

Three Months Old Child : 

Use double the quantity of Cook's Flaked Rice (two cups) 
and do not strain. 

In buying Flaked Rice from your grocer be sure to get COOK'S. 
There are wortMess imitations on tbe market. 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 




People's Independent Rice Mill, Crowley, La. 



WE ARE THE LARGEST °'-°"^-" """ 

c======r=====^^^=============^=^= Millers of Rice 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



We own and operate Five Irrigating Mills, comprising over 125 
Miles of Canals and Watering 40,000 Acres of Rice. 



We own and operate Five Mills in Louisiana with a capacity 
for Milling 6,500 Bags of Rice daily. 



Mill No. I.— 

PEOPLE^S INDEPENDENT RICE MILL CO., 

Limited. CROWLEY, LA. 

Mill No. 2 — 

THE GUEYDAN RICE MILL, Limited, 

GUEYDAN, LA. 
Mill No. 3.— 

THE EUREKA RICE MILL, 

ESTHERWOOD, LA. 
Mill No. 4 — 

ABBEVILLE RICE MILL, Limited, 

ABBEVILLE, LA 

Mill No. 5.— 

DONALDSONVILLE RICE MILL, 

DONALDSONVILLE, LA. 



Correspondence is Solicited. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 139 

Crowley, Louisiana, 

IS THE CENTER OF THE 

RICE INDUSTRY, AND 

W. W. Duson 5c IBro., 

Are HEADQUARTERS for Rice Lands. 

We have thousands of acres of land for sale at 
from Twenty to Forty Dollars per acre, that are yield- 
ing an annual return of from Twenty to Thirty-five 
dollars per acre after all expenses of the crop have 
been paid. 

These lands are not swamps, being high and dry 
prairies, located in the most delightful and healthy 
climate in America. 

You should write us at once for maps and 
printed matter descriptive of this wonder- 
ful country. 

W. W. DU50N & BRO., 

CKOWLEY, LA. 

P. S5. LOVELL, Pres't. MIIION ABBOTT, Vice-Pres't. W. E. ELLIS, Cashier. 

Crou^Iey State Bank, 

PAID UP CAPITAL $50,000.00. 
SURPLUS $25,000.00. 

Capital and Surplus, 0row1ey, Ca* 

$75,000, ^^ 

Do a general banking business. 
Special attention to collections from commercial firms. 

B. E. BLACK, CROWLEY. J. P. BLACK, JENNINGS. 

BLACK BROS. & CO., 

Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 

Farm Machinery, Wagons, 
Buggies and Harness. 

We have tiie largest stock of the best machinery for this country. Irrigate 
lag Pumps and Stationary Engines a Specialty. 

Correspondence solicited. 

BLACK BROS. & CO., - - • JENNINGS, and CROWLEY. LA. 



140 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



20 TO 30% INVESTMENT 

THE past three years experience has 
proven that rice lands in this locality 
under the present system of irrigation 
give returns of 20 to 30 per cent, net 
on the investment. 

For further information write, 

"p SIbT E. F. ROWSON & CO., 

JENNINGS, LA. 

F. R. JAENEE. T. O. MAHAFFSY. 

JAEINKE; <& MAHAPFEV, 

REAL ESTATE 



JEIVINirVOS, - = = = .. UOUISIAINA. 

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR INVESTMENT OR A HOME DON'T 
FAIL TO CALL, OR WRITE US, 

^- — ^CITY AND FARM PROPERTY.~-~~-^'^ — 

LEWIS & ROSS 

Rice Lands ^^estate 

GENERAL LAND AGENTS: 

We protect the interest of our clients, pay taxes and 
collect rents. 
WRITE US. JENNINGS, LA. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 14I 



For RiCCt Oil or 



SEE 

I W- J. B. MOORE, GEORGE J. McMANlS, | 

360 PEARL ST., 

BEAUMONT, TEXAS. 



WE REFER TO ALL OUR OLD CUSTOMERS. <» 

Perkins & Miller Lumber Co. 

(L«imit:ecl.) 

CALCASIEU LONG LEAF PINE. 

WESTLAKE, LA. 
^,^,^ WBSTUAKB RICE AlIUL, ^^^ 

C. B. LAKE & CO., LIMITED, Props. 

WESTUAKE, LA. 

MILLERS and GROWERS of FINE JAPAN and HONDURAS RICES 

WE WANT YOUR TRADE. 

^Vrite for Samples and Prices Now. 



Assessor Acadia Parish. RICE LAND DEALER. Titles Examined. 

LAND 

AGENT 

Office INean Court Mouse, CROWLEY, LOUISIAINA. 

Dealer in large ami small tracts of Rice Lands, on canals and flowing wells, as desired. Have a 
list of Crowley resident and business properties for sale. Terms given on all deals. 
Inq\iire For Snap T^argaiiis. 



Judge Jl. €. Coritiand 



142 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

look:, imooue «& oo. 

LIMITED 



MANUFACTURERS OF ROUGH 
AND DRESSED 



Calcasieu Long Leaf 
Yellow Pine Lumber. 



ALSO HAVE FOR SALE 



50,000 Acres of Grazing and Farming Lands. 
WESTLAKE, LA. 

A. S. LASCELLES & CO. 

New York and New Orleans. 

General Commission Merchants. 



IN. Y. OFFICE 

Coffee Exchange, Hanover 

Square. 

Store, 23 Bridge Street. 



IS. O. OFFICE 

619 Common Street. 

EMILIANO MARTINEZ, Mgr 



AGEMCIES 



E. A, dc Pass & Co., 

DIXON HOU8K. 

Fenchurch Street, LONDON, E. C. 
ENGUND. 



Lascelles, de Mercado & Co. 

12 Port Royal Street, 

KINGSTON, JA. 

B. w. I. 



L. T. BERNSTEIN, Port of Spain, TRINIDAD, B. W. I. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



143 



GEO. LOCK, President. 

L. KAUFMAN, Vice President. 



A. L. WILLIAMS, Cashier. 
N. E. NORTH, Ass't Cashier. 



#% 
%# 



OF? L,AKt3 CHA.RL,E:S 




7 -^ ^1 ] ' 




Capital, $50,000.00 
Surplus and Undivided Profits, $40,000.00 

SAVINGS DEPARTMENT. LAKE CHARLES, UA 



The Largest Rice Milling Plant in America. 

Incorporated Under the Laws of the State of New York, 



CHRISTIAN M. MEYEE, Presiaeut. 
J. HENRY DlOK, Vice-President. 



GEORGE G. BAUER, Treasurer 
BEUNABD SUYDAM, Secretary. 




■VA^.J'DotLW. 



Lake Charles Rice Milling Co. 



OF LOUISIANA. 
LAKE CHARLES, LA. 



144 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

The Morth American Land and 



5 1-iasaE^L.^Vij 

OF LONDON, ENGLAND. 



Offer For Sale on easy Terms of payment 
25,000 Acres of Rice Land 

in Calcasieu Parish, Southwest Louisiana, at Prices ranging from$ioto$25 
per acre, depending upon location. All these lands can be irrigated either by 
the system or from deep wells. 

The Company will rent 10,000 ACRES OF RICE LAND, subject to 
irrigation, to good farmers who are not prepared to purchase outright. To 
first class farmers the Company will furnish buildings and seed rice, also 
fence the land. 

This Company also owns over 50,000 acres in a solid body, which show 
almost conclusive proof of being oil lands. Tli^se lands can also be purchased 
at a moderate figure. Address, 

A. V. EASTMAN, Manager, 

LAKE CHARLES, LA. 

Attention Investors I 

Consult Your Best Interests. How ? By conferring with me before 
you invest. Why ? 

Because I am located in the geographical centre of the best rice lands in the United 
States and have unsurpassed facilities for keeping in close touch with the property 
holders and al-wrays endeavor to gi'^e my clients the best bargains obtainable. 

i have a large and well selected list of fine rice lands at very moderate prices. 
Call in person, or write me, [ 

O. S. DOLBY, Real Estate Dealer. 

LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA. 

J. A. Bel, Pres. and Manager. W. W. Flanders, Sec'y and Treas. 

W, S. Goes, Vice-President. W. G. Mocling, Ass't Sec'y and Treas. 

J. A. BEU UUMBBR CO., uim'td. 

Paid up Capital, $100,000. 
... MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERS IN ... 

CALCASIEU LONG LEAF 

YELLOW PINE LUMBER. 

RAILROAD TIMBER 
And Extra Lengths and Sizes a Specialty. 

•-AKE CHARLES, LA. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



145 



H. C. DuEW, President. 

C.KO. HORRIDGE, Vice-President. 



i'RANK Roberts, Casiuer. 

J, W. Gardiner, Assistant Cashier. 



Capital, $100,000.00. Surplus, $20,000.00. 

LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA. 




''■'^ -^''- <§^ This Bank respectfully solicits 

'^^ixr "" business with the assurance 

^.^ to new and old customers of 

the prompt and satisfactory 

. service that comes from 

^thorough equipment in all 

departments. 



««« 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT 



SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES 
SAVING DEPARTMENT 



'yp^egeiC^ci 



RIGE! 



RICE! 



The Question of the Hour! 

Rice Lands, Rice Farms, Fruit and Truck Farms, 
Louisiana Long Leaf Yellow Pine Timber Lands. 
Improved and unimproved Lake Charles property. 
Taxes paid, rents collected, investments made for non-residents. 

For full particulars call on or write 

FRANCIS CHAVANNEl, 

Real Estate. Rental and Investment Broker, 
Calcasieu Parish: The Rice Center- LAKE CHARLES, LA, 



OIL, RICE, TIMBER, 

Grazing and Agricultural Lands. 

We are old in the business and are prepared to supply the wants 
of any and all -who -want land. 
Terms can be made to suit. 

Special inducements for colonization or investment. 
Have some excellent rice propositions. 

C. W. HAHL & CO. 

330 Main Street, 

HOUSTOrM, TEX. 



146 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 



The natural stepping stone to the great South American Continent, 
QUAINT HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS, 

The /New St. Charles Hotel 



The 

Latest, 
Largest 
and 
Best, 






^ SS^^i " ^ „^ -»^ . 



^ 



Only 

Absolutely 
Fireproof 
Hotel 







Accommodations for 700 Ouests. 150 Private Bath Rooiiis» 

Turkish, Russian and Roman Baths. 

Filtered, Distilled, and Aerated Drinking: Water. 

A MODERN FIRST-CLASS HOTEL., 

Kept on both American and European plans at moderate prices. 

A. R. BLAKEUY «& CO., Uimited, 

"Write for plans and prices. IProprietors. 



Dan Talmage's Sons Co., 



NEW YOKK. 



Dan Talmage, 2nd, 

CHARLESTON, S. C. 



JOHN S. TALMAGE, 

NEW ORUEANS, 



RICE 



In Jobbing Quantities 
—Only— 



Selections from Every Mill 
in the State. 



Chas. E. Cormier, 



209 N. Peters St., New Orleans, La., 

Dealer in Domestic, Japan and Native Louisiana 

and Texas Rice, 



SAMPi-ES FORNA/ARDED ON REQUEST. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



147 




A. K. Seago ^ Co., 

521 Conti Street, 
NEW ORLEANS, LA., 

BROKERS AND COMMISSION MERCHANTS. 



Sugar, Molasses ?=^ Coffee 



WRITE FOR SAMPLES AND QUOTATIONS. 



Established 1881. 



MARTIN J. WYNNE. 




213 North Peters St, NEVS^ ORLEANS, LA. 



SAMPLES AND QUOTATIONS SENT. 
"Charges Prepaid" ["la Jobbing 

on Applicatioa. Quantities Oaly." 

Gko.T. Drank, 

Wholesale ^^ 



Rice 



217 North Peters Street, 
NEW ORLEANS, LA. 



148 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

THERE ARE MORE 

OPPORTUNITIES 

FOR THE HOME-SEEKER AND INVESTMENTS THAT 

WILL YIELD A SURE AND STEADY 

INCREASE IN 

a^d Southern Texas 

THAN IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD. 



RICE 



Is the surest and most profitable 
crop grown. If you are interested 
and wish to 



KNONV MORB 

Send $1.00 for One Year's Subscription to the 

"RICE INDUSTRY." 

OSWALD WILSON, Editor, Houston, Texas. 

It will tell the truth, and is the leading technical Rice Journal of the World 



XHP Pfr*P flSJnilQTDV Wi^J te'J aJJ about the wonder- 

inC fvlwC IllLIUolKl ful advancement that is making 

the Gulf Coast Country the richest section of the United States, and is 



The Best Advertising Medium in the South, 

SEND FOR RAXEIS. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 149 

The Southern Pacific 

SUNSET ROUTE 



IS THB 



RICE BELT LINE 

The only Railroad traversing 
the great Rice Fields from 
end to cnd%H^^%H^%H%M%M%H 

Covering Louisiana and Texas 



"Write for Information Concerning LanclSy 
L,ocatIon» etc* to 

S, F. B. MORSE, L. J. PARKS, 

Aas't Pa«»'t Traffic Hgt. G*n'l Pais't and Ticket Agt. 

JOHN HOWARD, 

Inuntgration Agent. 

HOUSTOIS, TEXAS. \ Jk 



I 90 , SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

. r HOME SEEKER'S RATES 



From the OLD STATpS to the 

Ric^ Fields 



. . OF . 




APPLY OVEI^ ... 

The Southern Pacific 
Sunset 



PULLMAN EXCURSION SLEEPERS 

OPERATE REGULARLY BETWEEN 

Cincinnati, Chicago, Washington to Texas 
and Louisiana -Points on 

SUNSET ■ ROUTE. 

Write for Information, Etc. to 

■O'-iA ••• . .. . '■•. 
S. F. B. MORSE, L. J. PARKS, 

Ass't Pass'r Traffic Hang'r, Qen'l Pass'r & Tkt. Agt., 

V tiOUSTOIN, TEXAS. 



ATLANTA, fiA., 



CHOICE LANDS IN TEXAS. 

The railroad system of Texas, having brought into easy access the lands origin- 
ally granted the Houston & Texas Central ; Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio; 
Texas & New Orleans, and Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific Railway Companies, they 
are now offered to the public on terms and at prices such as to put them in reach 
of every person desiring to own his own homestead. 

Lands for the farmer, the planter, the gardener, the stock-raiser and millman, 
which will be sold at reasonable price, on long time and at low rate of interest. 

Theie is a wide field here from which to select, embracing such a variety of 
lands, that there is no reason why all should not obtain locations suitable to their 
particular ideas and desires. There is ample room for an almost unlimited num- 
ber of energetic people, as Texas is a State that cannot be equalled in the pro- 
portion of acreage adopted to the highest degree of cultivation ; all it needs is 
population. The low price of lands, great fertility of soil, low rates of taxation and 
munificent educational endowments, are inducements that no other state can offer. 

For detailed terms of sale, prices, information, maps and pamphlets, address 

C. C._GIBBS, Land Commissioner, San Antonio, Tex 

AGENCIES. 

H. W. NATHAN Commercial Agent 

W. R. FAGAN Traveling Passenger Agent 

uLiimnivT TLV S F. A. LEOVY Division Passenger and Freight Agent 

BtAinWBI, lEA., j J p RYAN Traveling Passenger Agent 

lULTlMOKE, MB, 209 East German Street B. B. BARBER, Agent 

{B. E. CURRIER New England Agent 
E.C.CAMPBELL Traveling Passenger Agent 
FRANK PATRICK Traveling Passenger A|ent 
W. F. HILL City Passenger Agent 

BROWXSVllLE, TEX M. B. KINGSBURY, Agent 

( W.G. NEIMYER.. .General Western Freight and Passenger Agent 

CHICA«0, ILL., 2S8 (lark Street, R. D. WILLIAMS Passenger Agent 

( B. H BULLARD Traveling Passenger Agent 

CINCINNATI, OHIO, No. 5a East Fourth Street j '^: ?! &?.^?§S:::;V.--- V/Z.-.-.-.V/Traveling p'Sfn'^^^r ^pll^ 

CITY nv MEXICO, 13 S:in Jirn De lelian G. R. HACKLEY, General Agent, Traffic Department 

ItANVlLLE, VA A. E. WOODELL, Traveling Freight Agent 

DALLAS, TEX A. G. NEWSUM, Division Passenger Agent 

niKi I » cfti 111") I'TJh sfr^of S WM. K. McAllister General Agent 

DfcNl LK, lOL. , UU IJtn Street, j G. F. KUHNS Traveling Freight and Passenger A|ent 

DIIKANGO. MEX A. GREGORY, Commercial Agent, Mexican International R. R 

EAKLE PASS, TEX. C. K. DUNLAP, General Freight and Passenger Agent Mexican International R. R 

i?i DtGA Tcv ( Division Passenger and Freight Agent 

tLFASO,ltX. J J. A. SPELLICY Passenger and Ticket Agent 

DurGiiin pn S S. F. BOOTH District Freight and Passenger Agent 

mtSUO, lAL j WM. B.MAY Traveling Passenger Agent 

i.iivrsTftiii rfPY i J. R.CHRISTIAN, T.& N.O.,G. H.&S. A Commercial Agent 

«.AL\ES10fl,lti., I j.H. MILLER, T. & N. O., G. H.&S. A Division Passenger Agent 

HAVANA, CUBA, 36 San iK„aci Street \ v -y:": :::;:::::: ^ I ^^^^^c^^'i^!:^^/^^ 

HELENA, MONT E. I. STIEFEL, Traveling Passenger Agent 

uftiifiTftK Tfv j H.C. REESE, T.&N.O., G. H.&S. A Ass't Gen. Frt. Agent 

HOlSlOfl, IfcA,, I JOHN HOWARD Pass, and Immigration Agent 

JENMNdS, LI S. L. CAR Y, Immigration Agent 

KEYWEST.FLA LAFLIN & CO., Agents 

KANSAS CITY, MO.. Exchange BuildinR .. C. C. CAR Y, Northwestern Passenger and Immigration Agent 

inGimrirs rii -loa s^nti, fibrin- fit S G.W.LUCE Ass't General Passenger and Freight Agent 

LOS AN«ELES,eAL., 229 South Spring St. j n. R. MARTIN Traveling Passenger A|ent 

MO^TEKEV. MEX H. N. GIBSON, Commercial Agent, Mexican Internat onal K. R 

MONTKOMERY, ALA G. W. ELY, Traveling Passenger Agent 

KICHVIIIF TFKIV Xr. i Nnpl RInffc i R. O. BEAN, Traveling Passenger Agent 

NASH\lLLfc, lb»JI.,ft0.4 floelBlocR | G. WALDO, Traveling Freight A|ent 

NEYV IBERIA, LA., CHAS. B. ELLIS, Division Passenger and Freight Agent 

viru ARlfl\'<i 11 \ H.B.ABBOTT City Passenger Agent 

SEH ORLEANS, U., j L. YAM SAN Chinese Passenfer A|ent 

HIKWVIIRK \ Y '!4<» Rrntidwav .mil I RattPFT PlafA I E. HAWLEY.. .Assistant General Traffic Manager 
JlfcV\ lURK,*. J.,diJBroaQwayana 1 Battery riace, I l H. NUTTING Eastern Passenger Agent 

PASADENA, CAL I. N. TODD, Commercial Agent 

PHILADELPHIA, PA., 109 South Third Street, I a! M^LiN^ACRE ■..\\\\\\:::.TVaC4iing>assenger Apnt 
PITTSBURG, PA., 711 Park Building, | j^l^^^i^y^™.''.''.;. ........ •.Traveiin. Passenger Apnt 

„«,.™,...,i. Ann »nEi.. u- . o^ * S C.H.MARKHAM General Freight aud Passenger Agent 

PORTLAND, ORE., 265 Washington Sfreet, \ j. b. KIRKLAND, 3rd & Alder Sts., District Passenler Alent 

PORT TAMPA. FLA JNO. BRADLEY, Agent 

RIVKKSIDE, CAL G. F. FORS YTHE, Commercial Agent 

SACRAMENTO, CAL S. S. FULTON, Traveling Passenger Agent 

SALT LAKE CITY, ITAH, 214 Dooly Block D. R. GRAY, General Agent 

B»K .^Tftitin Trv \ J. McMillan, G. H. & S. A Division Passenger Agent 

SAN ANTONIO, TEX., j C. FAHEY, G. H. & S. A Division Freight Alent 

SAN DIEGO, CAL., 869 Fifth Street G. H. McMILLAN, Commercial Agent 

r G. W. FLETCHER General Agent 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., 613 Market Street, J 7^'- L- KNIGHT Traveling Passenger Agent 

I I. B. LAUCK .. Traveling Passenger Agent 

[ E. B. McCORD City Passenger Agent 

SANTA BARBARA, CAL F. M. FRYE, Commercial Agent 

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CAL J. L. BUELL, District Freight and Passenger Agent 

SAVANNAH, GA., 18 East Bryan Street C. W. MURPHEY, Traveling Passenger Agent 

ST LOUIS, MO.. 421 Olive Street, (Bank of Commerce Bldg.) L. E. TOWNSLEY, Commercial Agent 

SYRACUSE, N. Y., 129 South Franklin Street F. T. BROOKS, New York State Agent 

SEATTLE, WASH., 619 First Avenue E.J. STEEPLE, District Passenger Agent 

TACOMA. WASH.. 1108 Pacific Avenue E.J. STEEPLE, District Passenger Agent 

WACO. TEX T.J. ANDERSON, District Passenger Agent 

WASHINGTON. D. CSll Pennsvlvanla Avenue A.J. POSTON, General Agent Sunset Excursions 

HyUfURG. GERMANY, 6 and 8 "Karlsburg. . . ^ 
LONDON. ENGLAND 49 Ladenhall Street and I 

LlVERPOoir ENGLAN**d"1 WaterStreet: ^ RUDOLPH FALCK. General European Passenger Agent. 

ROTTERDAM. NETHERLANDS,92 Wynhaven,SS; l 



